I applied for several roles in the UCs in the past few years, and I just get rejected. How am I supposed to stand out for these roles?
In practice, a lot of networking seems to be involved.
Were you an admissions reader? Do you know how the hiring process works?
I have never been an admissions officer, or hired one. However, over the years I have interacted with many, or at least heard them talk about this, and learned something about how they got there.
And a lot seemed to get a start at their own college. They may well have worked as a student in Admissions. They may know other people who did.
And then people who advance start getting involved with the professional organizations. They might advance at their own college, but then sometimes they take jobs at other institutions, and I get the sense they often have some sort of networking connection for those moves as well. I note that if they had enough experience as a student, they might well start somewhere new.
Of course that’s about as far as I can take you as an outsider to all this. So if you want an actual career mentor, obviously you need to find an experienced one. But that itself is part of networking . . . .
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I have a friend that did it one season (not at UCs) when they were unemployed. They did have a history of working in higher ed in various other administrative programatic capacities at other local universities. I am not sure they knew the hiring manager in admissions (I don’t think so, but possibly?), I think it was just likely university assumed friend knew “lay of land” since had worked in higher ed?
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I do think some exposure to higher Ed is important to get a reader job (assuming OP is not talking about becoming an admissions officer, there is a difference.)
OP, I would create an alert for reader jobs on higher ed jobs .com so that you get notified as soon as a job posts. Sometimes, HR makes the school post even tho there are no openings.
Specifically with the UCs, some, maybe all of them, allow HS counselors to be readers, so that’s a big, competitive pool. Many schools don’t allow that.
Often the job openings are communicated on closed Facebook groups too, and they go fast. I remember a couple of years ago one of the UC admissions director posted a job publicly and on a FB page, and took it down the next day after they received 900 apps in 24 hours!
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I already applied to over 20 positions and got denied every single time
I imagine there’s some type of test etc. They’d need to see your abilities.
Did you ever progress beyond submitting an application or resume ?
Do you have experience in higher ed or college counseling, selecting applicants for selective entry programs, or interviewing/making hiring decisions?
If not, you might gain some experience in those areas to make your application stronger.
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Nope
I reviewed applications for scholarships, but it’s hard to get experience beyond that
I’ve applied for a few PT remote essay reader positions (I’m guessing AI rejects me right away as I haven’t officially worked in 23 years other than volunteering as a college prep mentor for underrepresented high schools in my area).
In any event, my in-box is now flooded with openings in college counselor/college admissions positions. Most of the requirements do reference experience in higher ed as well as a master’s degree. There do seem to be many openings.
Do you have general work/career experience that could also somehow tie in? Most people reading apps (IME) are what I would call ‘seasoned’. Older, with at least a decade or two of work experience.
Anyway, make sure to highlight the scholarship reading experience in your cover letter and how it directly ties to college application reading (reviewing applications for selective scholarship based on a rubric, holistic review considering many academic as well as non-academic components, presenting applicants to a selection group/discussing and making team decisions, etc.)
You could also volunteer through the many non-profits that help students through the college application process.
Lastly, you might also try to network with an admissions person at any of the schools you know use readers.
Beyond that, you should keep applying. You don’t know how many openings there will be in any given year, or when your background/app might be the one that catches someone’s eye.
College counselor roles are different than application reader jobs, and typically need a different set of qualifications. Working as a college counselor can help get a reader job, but most reader jobs won’t allow someone to also be working with students. It’s one or the other. The hourly rate of a qualified college counselor is much higher than that of a reader.
I don’t know how many openings there are each year…like I said above, even if the job is posted, that doesn’t necessarily mean there are openings.
With that said, some schools that use readers have far more readers than full-time admissions staff. As of a few years ago, UCLA used over 400 readers, but most of those come thru the alum network AFAIK (I’ve never seen UCLA post one of these jobs.)
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So a counselor job is easier to get than a reader job?
IMHO, not unless you have some specific experience in this field. College counselor and admissions reader have different total skill sets, with some overlap.
Can you please explain why you want to be an admissions reader?
To help review applications. That’s my motive for becoming an admissions reader.
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That doesn’t answer my question. Why do you want to do this type of job?
It’s a job I can do at home on top of my normal job, and I believe it takes advantage of my strengths of being a detail-oriented person good at reading and analysis
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If you have skills in reading/analysis, you likely need to highlight those on your resume when you apply for an admissions reader job.
Sample of one…and for a different reader job. We have a close family member who was a reader for the SAT writing section (when that was administered). She had a masters in creative writing/English from NYU and had been an adjunct professor at a four year college near her…teaching English. She had read tons of writing prior to applying to be a reader. In addition, she helped students write essays and even did some volunteer work helping HS students in the area with their college essays. She had a lot of experience.
She also thought she could do this in addition to her day jobs. She did it for a while, but found it wasn’t as “easy” to fit this job in as she thought it was going to be.
But my real point is…she had a lot of experience with both reading, and writing. And this was clear in her resume.
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No, college counselors need far more training/education than app readers. Reader jobs are just super competitive partially because one doesn’t need a lot of training.
Also, FYI, at the school where I work, newish readers can only work regular business hours, M-F.
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