Assistant Director, Industry and Campus Connections
Position Announcement
Assistant Director, Industry and Campus Connections
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, seeks a dynamic team member to serve as an Assistant Director of industry and Campus Connections within the Office of Career Exploration and Success.
Application Deadline to Apply: 11:59 pm on May 22, 2024
Institution Overview
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, the flagship campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a renowned academic institution that boasts a vibrant and diverse community of learners. With its enrollment numbers exceeding 43,000 students, Rutgers-New Brunswick offers a broad range of programs across its schools and colleges, providing students with ample opportunities for intellectual growth and personal development. The campus's rich history, state-of-the-art facilities, and distinguished faculty contribute to a dynamic learning environment that prepares students for success in their chosen fields and equips them with the skills necessary to thrive in an ever-changing world.
About Career Exploration and Success
Career Exploration and Success (CES) is committed to assisting students with making connections between their academic experience and career paths. We provide career-related advising, resources, and programs to help individuals discover their interests, values, and skills, explore careers and majors, develop skills through internships and experiential opportunities, and pursue their post-graduate goals. We build relationships with alumni, employers, and graduate schools to optimize internship, job, and career opportunities while also creating strategic partnerships with campus departments to assist students in developing and articulating co-curricular experiences that will help to ensure they are competitive in their future pursuits.
CES is comprised of four units, each with its own director who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of their unit, making hiring decisions, providing leadership to their unit, managing their unit's budget, solving challenges and celebrating wins, and making decisions aligned with overarching goals.
About the Industry and Student Connections Unit
One of four units within the Office of Career Exploration and Success, the Industry & Student Connections unit strengthens, expands, and diversifies recruiting relationships to maximize not only career opportunities for Rutgers University–New Brunswick students and graduates but also to generate support for the university’s academic mission from these important partners. Staff organizes recruiting events such as fairs, interviewing days, employer information sessions, and more. They also build relationships with recruiters and help them to connect with campus partners. The unit also oversees the Knights of the Round Table corporate partners sponsorship program which financially supports CES operations. The ISC unit consists of eight full-time staff members and three graduate coordinators organized into two teams led by associate directors: Recruiting Programs team and Industry-to-Campus Connections team (associated with this role).
About the Industry-to-Campus Connections Team
Aligned with the ISC Unit's mission, the Industry-to-Campus Connectors Team cultivates meaningful relationships with industry partners, enabling deeper connections within the campus community through specialized recruiting opportunities. Each team member is assigned career communities that focus their outreach efforts, and they work closely with the student-facing staff members associated with their community.
About the Associate Director of Industry and Campus Connections
As the associate director and direct supervisor, Catarina (Cat) Caulfield leads a team of industry connectors whose role is to facilitate connections between employers and the campus for recruiting programs, campus partnerships, and engagement with Rutgers students. Cat, who was recently promoted to this position, brings over 7 years of experience in career services. Her expertise includes developing relationships with new employers in underserved career communities, recruiting and onboarding organizations for the Knights of the Round Table (KoRT) corporate partners program, leading efforts to track, investigate, and address fraudulent employer activities, and managing employer engagement for the Rutgers Scarlet Service Internship Program. Prior to joining Rutgers, Cat spent six years in the recruiting sector, where she supervised a team of professionals and provided talent acquisition and sourcing services to the property and casualty insurance industry.
Cat was recently honored as the Outstanding Career Services Professional of the Year by the HireBig10+ consortium, with nominations submitted by various members of the CES team. Cat has served on the executive board of the New Jersey Career Center Consortium as President, Vice President of Employer Services, and Vice President of Networking. She has also served in various leadership roles within the HireBig10+ Consortium and will serve as the consortium Chair next academic year.
About the Director of Industry & Student Connections
Michelle St. George-Galando is the director of Industry & Student Connections, appointed in November 2023. Michelle has served in various roles over 10 years within CES, including Associate Director of Industry-to-Campus Connections, Assistant Director of Networking Programs, and Recruiting Programs Coordinator. In 2023, Michelle was selected as the Outstanding Career Services Supervisor of the Year by the HireBig10+ Career Consortium, honored for her genuine support and regard for her colleagues who reported to her. She is also a former President of the New Jersey Career Center Consortium and very active in the career services community.
About the Executive Director
Michelle Galando, Director of Industry and Student Connections, reports to William (Wil) Jones, Executive Director of Career Exploration and Success. Wil was officially named Executive Director in 2021 by Rutgers University-New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost Francine Conway. Jones previously served in various roles within CES, including Director of Operations and Strategic Initiatives, Senior Director, and interim Executive Director. At Rutgers, he co-founded the industry-centric career community approach to career development – which has become a national model – to diversify office offerings and help students think about their professional goals beyond the confines of their academic discipline. Before joining Rutgers, Wil oversaw an industry relations team at the University of Maryland, among other responsibilities.
Position Description
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is seeking a Senior Program Coordinator (Industry and Campus Connections) within the Office of Career Exploration and Success. Reporting to the Associate Director for Industry and Campus Connections, the Connector will focus on increasing opportunities for Rutgers students. They will work to develop and maintain relationships with employers within their assigned career communities. The incumbent will also plan and facilitate special events and programs to connect employers and students and manage the approval process of Rutgers Handshake job and internship postings. Additionally, the connector will work with students primarily within high-impact programs to place them in employment opportunities.
Industry Development:
The connector will spend substantial time working to increase diversity (i.e., industry and position types) of the Rutgers University-New Brunswick employer base. This will include researching employer leads and cultivating new employer relationships via phone, e-mail, and in-person meetings. The development and outreach efforts will be tracked through a dashboard requiring monthly year-to-year job listings and comparisons with employer activity reports. They will also identify employers and alumni for student programming needs and source employers in support of fairs, networking events, and other recruiting programs. They will also handle various Rutgers University Foundation employment requests when applicable.
Special Recruiting Programs:
As part of various career community advisory boards, the connector will work with partners to develop and support recruiting events for career communities as a vehicle to attract new employers to campus or expand existing relationships. The connector will also develop special recruiting opportunities for high-level corporate donors as well as employers with substantial hiring needs.
Individual Student Placement Advising:
The connector provides a wide array of direct individual placement services for undergraduate and graduate students, primarily within career-related high-impact programs. These include both in-person and online sessions to help participating students in need connect with employers seeking new hires for jobs and internships.
Handshake Administration:
The connector will assist with the timely approval of new employer accounts and new job/internship postings within the Handshake system. The incumbent will also manually add positions to the system when appropriate. On average, nearly 200 positions are approved by that team each day. Currently, the Handshake system houses data for over 20,000 employer organizations.
Miscellaneous:
The connector will participate in committee/staff meetings, professional development, assist with the Knights of the Round Table partners program, and other responsibilities as assigned.
Candidate Profile
To be considered for the assistant director position, candidates must meet the following minimum requirements:
- Experience and Education: A bachelor’s degree in a related field or an equivalent combination of education and/or experience that demonstrates highly relevant experience in career services, workforce development, campus relations, human resources, recruiting, and/or customer service environment is required. A minimum of two years of relevant experience in a program coordination or administrative function is also required.
- Skills and Competencies: The successful candidate must have a relationship-building orientation with strong interpersonal and exceptional communication skills. They should be able to work independently and as part of a team.
Preferred Qualifications: A master’s degree and experience within a career service or higher education setting along with industry expertise is preferred.
Flexible Work Arrangement Program
Rutgers is pleased to announce the extension of the FlexWork@RU Pilot Program through August 31, 2024. Full-time staff members within Career Exploration and Success are permitted to either a 4:1 compressed work week or up to two days per week of remote work.
The flexible work arrangements outlined in Rutgers Policy 60.3.22 are part of a pilot program that is effective September 1, 2022 and extended through August 31, 2024. Therefore, there is no guarantee that this flexible work arrangement will continue beyond that date. Flexible work arrangements are not permanent, are subject to change or cancellation and contingent on the employee receiving approval in the FlexWork@RU Application System. Additional information may be found at https://futureofwork.rutgers.edu.
Additionally, CES has implemented #FocusFriday, a department-wide practice where internal meetings between CES colleagues are discouraged every Friday. This dedicated time enables staff to concentrate on accomplishing their goals. Periodic meditation or mental health breaks throughout the day are also supported. To further support productivity, CES encourages the utilization of automated "Focus Blocks" through Microsoft Outlook. These automated blocks allow staff members to schedule designated periods of uninterrupted work time, further maximizing productivity and focus.
Benefits Program
Rutgers offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees. For details, please go to http://uhr.rutgers.edu/benefits/benefits-overview.
Rutgers also offers a benefit program to eligible full-time postdoctoral fellow students. For details, please go to https://finance.rutgers.edu/healthcare-risk/insurance/postdoctoral-health-insurance.
Non-Discrimination Statement
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age, or any other category covered by law in its admission, programs, activities, or employment matters. For additional information, please see the Non-Discrimination Statement at the following web address: http://uhr.rutgers.edu/non-discrimination-statement
Search Committee:
Joe Scott, joe.scott@rutgers.edu (Search Committee Chair)
Associate Director, Career Success Strategy - Career Exploration & Success
Linda Bagen
Sr. Assistant Director, Administration & Finance - Career Exploration & Success
Toni Berlingieri
Assistant Director, Networking Sessions & Interviewing Programs - Career Exploration & Success
Sharon Fash
Assistant Director, Industry & Campus Connections - Career Exploration & Success
Valbona (Val) Koxha
Employer Relations Manager - Office of Career Management, Rutgers Business School
Fore Odufalu
Student Program Assistant, High Impact Programs (4WARD) - Career Exploration & Success
Tiffany Rice
Assistant Director, Career Exploration - Career Exploration & Success
Apply Today
Application Deadline to Apply: 11:59 pm on May 22, 2024