Career Services Director Job Description

What Does a Career Services Director Do?

Almost every college has a career promise that is made during recruitment and judged after graduation. It rests on the internships, employer contacts, and job offers that make a graduate's first search shorter and less stressful. Career services directors run the office that keeps that promise.

Also known as: Assistant Director of Career Services, Associate Director, MBA Career Management Center, Director of Employer Relations, Student Employment Manager, Associate Director of Career Services

Career Services Director Duties and Responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of a career services director include:

• Set the career center's annual goals, budget and staffing plan with senior student affairs leaders.
• Build partnerships with employers that recruit on campus, host interns or sponsor career fairs.
• Supervise career counselors, employer relations staff and student workers, including hiring and reviews.
• Run the first-destination survey that reports where graduates work or study after finishing.
• Manage the Handshake account, employer approval rules and the job posting policy.
• Present outcome data to deans, trustees and admissions staff who quote it to prospective families.
• Plan major recruiting events, including career fairs, employer information sessions and interview weeks.
• Work with academic departments to add internships and career courses to degree programs.
• Raise funds from alumni and corporate donors for paid internship grants and center programs.
• Review advising, resume and interview services each term against student usage and survey results.

Required Skills and Qualifications

To succeed as a career services director, you will need the following skills and qualifications:

• Leadership of a professional counseling and employer relations staff
• Budget planning and fundraising experience
• Handshake or a similar career services platform
• Relationship building with employers across industries
• Survey design and outcome reporting in Excel or Tableau
• Public speaking to trustees, parents and employers
• Knowledge of NACE standards for reporting graduate outcomes
• Diplomacy with employers, faculty and students

Education and Training

To become a career services director, in many colleges you will need a master's degree in counseling, higher education or business to qualify for the top post. Most directors progress from career counselor to associate director or employer relations manager first. Some come from corporate recruiting.

Salary and Job Outlook

BLS projects employment of postsecondary education administrators, a group that also covers deans, registrars and admissions directors, to grow about 2 percent from 2025 to 2035. That works out to roughly 14,500 openings a year across the whole group. Budgets for career centers often are tied to enrollment, but colleges always will need someone accountable for graduate outcomes as families compare schools by where their graduates end up.

Outlook source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2025 to 2035, Education administrators, postsecondary.