Manager, Career Services
A Manager of Career Services helps a campus achieve targeted employment rates by supporting students and graduates with job searches, resume and cover letter writing, and interview coaching, while building employer relationships. This is a sample job description from Excelon Associates that you can adapt as a template for your own hire.
What does a Manager of Career Services do?
The primary goal of the Manager, Career Services is to help the campus achieve targeted employment rates in specific programs by supporting current students and graduates with their employment needs. This support includes job searches, resume and cover letter writing, and coaching on professionalism and interviewing.
The role builds employer relationships, tracks placement, and ensures compliance with accreditation requirements. It is a career services leadership role within the higher education sector.
ACCSC, the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, sets requirements that tie program approval to student outcomes. A Manager of Career Services ensures compliance by tracking and verifying employment and graduation percentages, and supports Program Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings that connect programs to employers.
What does the Manager own?
Key responsibilities of a Manager of Career Services
- Assist students in all aspects of career preparation, including resume and cover letter development, job searches, company research, and interview skills.
- Organize and conduct meetings with potential graduates every term to ensure graduation requirements are met, and confirm enrollment and career goals with new students.
- Support campus retention by helping current students gain employment that allows them to continue their programs.
- Develop and maintain relationships with potential employers to secure opportunities for graduates and current students, and maintain ongoing communication regarding interview results and expectations.
- Ensure compliance with ACCSC requirements by staying current on regulations and tracking and verifying student employment and graduation percentages.
- Attend, support, and recruit employers for program-specific Program Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings.
- Input, track, and update progress data for campus reports and maintain accurate records through periodic file review.
- Represent the institution at career fairs and veteran transition events, and conduct presentations at student orientations, VA briefings, and in classrooms.
- Support graduates with career advancement beyond initial employment.
What qualifications does the role require?
- An associate’s degree in human resources, business administration, organizational development, education, or a related field, with two additional years of experience accepted in lieu of a formal degree.
- A minimum of three years of experience in recruiting, staffing, career coaching, or a related field.
Why is the Manager of Career Services role important?
Placement rates are a core accountability metric for career colleges. The Manager of Career Services drives the employment outcomes that demonstrate program value, support accreditation, and help students launch careers, which makes the role central to both compliance and reputation.
Because the role blends one-on-one coaching with employer development and hard compliance tracking, the strongest managers can mentor a nervous graduate and defend a placement audit with equal confidence. Outcomes data only holds up when the relationships and records behind it are real.
A hiring note from Excelon
Career services leadership in accredited career colleges lives and dies on verified placement data and real employer relationships. Through our higher education practice, we look for managers with recruiting or coaching backgrounds who can build employer pipelines and keep ACCSC-ready records, since placement numbers only matter when the documentation behind them holds up.
The strongest managers can mentor a nervous graduate and defend a placement audit with equal confidence.
Related sample job descriptions
Manager, Career Services: frequently asked questions
What does a Manager of Career Services do?
A Manager of Career Services helps a campus achieve targeted employment rates by supporting students and graduates with job searches, resume and cover letter writing, and interview coaching, while building employer relationships and ensuring placement compliance.
What qualifications does the role require?
This sample role requires an associate’s degree in human resources, business, organizational development, education, or a related field (or two additional years of experience in lieu), and at least three years in recruiting, staffing, or career coaching.
What is ACCSC and why does it matter?
ACCSC is the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges. The manager ensures compliance with ACCSC requirements by tracking and verifying student employment and graduation percentages for specified programs.
What is a PAC meeting?
A PAC, or Program Advisory Committee, brings together employers and industry representatives to advise on program relevance. The manager attends, supports, and recruits employers for program-specific PAC meetings.
Why is this role important?
Placement rates are a core accountability metric for career colleges. The Manager of Career Services drives the employment outcomes that demonstrate program value, support accreditation, and help students launch careers.
Hiring a Manager of Career Services?
Excelon Associates recruits career services managers, placement leaders, and student outcomes professionals for colleges and career schools across the United States through our higher education recruitment practice. Retained executive search since 2007, headquartered in Asheville, NC, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, FL.
More Sample Job Descriptions
Templates you can adapt for your own roles.