Director of Legal and Financial Services Professions Advising - DavisConnects en Colby College

Job Description

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Job Summary:

Colby invites qualified professionals to apply for the newly-created role of Director of Legal and Financial Services Professions Advising.  Housed within Colby’s nationally-recognized DavisConnects Office, the Director will innovate and lead Colby’s legal professions advising program while developing and implementing a robust financial professions advising system.  The Director may also have an opportunity to teach a January Plan course pending interest and instruction experience.

Essential Functions

To perform successfully in this position, an individual must be able to perform essential duties satisfactorily as well as possess education/experience, employ the knowledge, skills, and abilities as listed in representative fashion. Colby College actively supports the Americans with Disabilities Act and will consider reasonable accommodations to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position.  This listing of essential duties is not all-inclusive, but representative; other duties may be assigned.

The Director’s essential responsibilities include:

• Advising students and alumni about the various paths they could pursue in the legal or financial services professions, including the academic year, January Plan, summer and post-graduate experiences they can pursue to clarify and compete successfully for opportunities in those professions;
• Designing and delivering workshops and resources, and partnering with alumni and other stakeholders on delivery of such offerings which expose students to the range of potential legal and financial services professions they may pursue, and help them compete for those opportunities;
• Partnering with the Director of Employer and Community Partnerships to cultivate and promote internship and other experiential learning opportunities which will make advisees better informed, more competitive candidates for the professions they are contemplating;
• Guiding students and alumni through the professional and graduate school application process, including, without limitation, application materials, entrance examinations, personal statements and interviews, as well as general guidance on professional school financing;
• Educating the Colby community about the curricular, co-curricular and global experiences suggested and/or required for the broad range of legal and financial services professions students and graduates are pursuing;
• Collecting and maintaining data pertaining to the admission of students and alumni to law school, graduate programs and other post-graduate destinations, and to student and graduate success in the pursuit of financial services professions;
• As requested and available while designing and implementing the Director’s programs, advising and supporting the efforts of Colby’s student “pre-law” and financial services-related organizations including, for example, the Mock Trial Team and Investment Club.

Position Qualifications

Education and/or experience:

• A graduate degree or equivalent professional experience in a relevant field plus experience teaching, coaching, advising and/or mentoring individuals interested in the legal and/or financial services professions, whether in a formal or informal capacity;
• Exceptional interpersonal, communication and problem-solving skills;
• Ability to recognize strengths and clarify the interests and values of students while assisting them in making informed decisions about their life after college;
• Excellent strategic planning, leadership and organizational skills;
• Commitment to developing innovative approaches to delivering excellent service;
• Experience in creating partnerships with and working creatively and effectively with broad constituencies;
• Team-orientation with an interest in collaborating with other members of DavisConnects in preparing students and graduates for success during and beyond college;
• Willingness to maintain a flexible schedule as needed, to accommodate evening and occasional weekend programs;
• Familiarity and experience using Microsoft Office and social media.

Physical/Mental Demands

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described herein are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform essential functions of this position and/or may be encountered while performing essential functions.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• To successfully perform the essential functions of this position, an employee must be able to maintain appropriate confidentiality with regard to employee and student data, documents, issues, etc., and respect privacy needs of students and employees with regard to the same.
• The ability to comply with highly inflexible deadlines is required to successfully perform the essential functions of this position; there will be multiple occurrences of sudden, urgent task completion required.
• There may be occurrences of students, families, employees, members of the general public, and others who express opinions, may exhibit strong emotions, which will require the employee to interact professionally, diplomatically, and appropriately in such situations.
• While performing the essential duties of this position, an employee would frequently be required to move around the office space as well as within hallways, meeting rooms, and other parts of the campus facilities. 
• There may be multiple/daily instances of prolonged personal computer use which would include keyboard and/or mouse usage as well as viewing a computer monitor.
• An employee may occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, and ability to adjust focus.
• The overall work environment requires the mental ability to shift focus quickly due to interruptions; an employee must be able to mentally track multiple projects and tasks as well.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate; however, there may be unexpected instances of somewhat loud sounds.