Our Irvine and Mission Viejo offices, both located in Southern California (Orange County), are each hiring a college counselor. I’ve included the entire job posting below to make it easier to forward and share with anyone that my readers believe might be a good fit. Thanks for your interest and for helping us spread the word.
*Do you think that finding, applying to, and getting accepted into college should be an exciting adventure for all students?
*Do you believe that great college educations can be found at plenty of schools that aren’t prestigious?
*Are you ready to change the way families approach the college admissions process?
If you’re nodding your head, you might enjoy being a college counselor at Collegewise. (Or you might just be someone who compulsively responds in the affirmative to any question.)
We’re looking for two people with just the right combination of passion, personality, and pluck to join our offices in Orange County, California (one counselor will work in Irvine, the other in Mission Viejo). Prior experience in college counseling or admissions is preferred but not required.
What is Collegewise?
Collegewise, a small but rapidly growing college counseling company, is trying to change college admissions. We do college counseling differently here. Our goal isn’t necessarily to get every kid who works with us into an Ivy League school. Instead, we show families just how many wonderful colleges there are while helping our students apply and get accepted to schools they’re excited to attend. We do it all with just the right mix of advice, encouragement, and occasional cheerleading to make the process exciting and enjoyable. We also speak in public, write, and constantly look for ways to spread good college planning information to anyone who needs it, whether or not they join our program.
What does a Collegewise college counselor do?
As a college counselor, you will work with a caseload of 30–60 students—most of whom are juniors and seniors—to help them find and apply to the right colleges for them. To build your caseload, you’ll also speak in public and develop honest relationships with high schools and counselors in your community. You’ll work hard, sometimes in the evenings and on Saturdays during the busy fall season. But you’ll be helping kids and parents, working with smart, passionate people, and doing it all in an entrepreneurial environment that has absolutely no connection to US News rankings.
Every college counselor who joins us completes an initial 40-hour training, followed by mentoring, support, and ongoing professional development. But we’ll also be looking for your ideas about how we can better accomplish all of the goals above.
You wouldn’t be crossing over to the for-profit version of the dark side here, either. We have an excellent reputation with both high school counselors and admissions officers. In our spare time, our counselors volunteer with several organizations committed to improving access to higher education for under-resourced students. We present at NACAC and local ACACs, we recycle, and we have at least three confirmed vegetarians here. Yes, we’re biased, but really, this is a pretty great place to come to work every day.
Orange County is home base for Collegewise. It’s where we were founded in 1999 (our Irvine and Mission Viejo offices are two of our largest and most successful), and it’s home to many of our most experienced counselors as well as our CEO and CFO. You’d be joining a thriving community of experienced Collegewisers and learning from some of the best minds in college counseling.
What’s the next step?
If your interest is piqued, get to know us a little better on our website. Find out more about what we do, who you’d be working with, and what we believe. If you like what you read and think you could find a professional home here, please email a résumé and cover letter to jobs@collegewise.com, and use the subject line, “College Counselor: Orange County.”
Like a great college essay, an effective cover letter should help us get to know who you really are. Don’t be afraid to be yourself—smart, thoughtful, or maybe even funny. Just don’t be generic. You might also consider checking out our founder and president’s five tips for job seekers.
This position starts at $45-55K depending on experience, with room for future growth in both salary and responsibility. We’d like new hires to start in January – March of 2017, but we will adjust the start dates to accommodate the right people. If you have questions about the job, please email us at the above address rather than call us. We promise to respond to you quickly.
Thanks for reading our post. We’d love to hear from you, but if we don’t, we hope you find the perfect professional fit someplace else.