My last job I had in which I found through looking through job descriptions was at the OSU College of Business as an Event Assistant. I already knew friends in this position which allowed me to fact check a lot of the job duties in the description if I had questions about them. The biggest thing I notice now about the description (see end of blog post for job description) was that they included a lot of tasks that the person in the position rarely did. For example, I did not need many of the basic office skills and programs because I was working just during events, not during the preparation days where materials were being created and marketing materials were being sent out.
I learned that the reason for this disconnect was that the job description did not encapsulate the new vision for the position which was solely events based and not as secretarial. Because they had no clue what this updated job would look like, they kept aspects of the old job description just in case those skills were needed. This threw me off, but I was able to use my friends already in the position as guidance.
By constantly updating job descriptions, applicants have a clearer view of what the position will entail. Since the College of Business is always iterating their engagement programs and events, it is hard to always be up to date with this job information. I wished there would have been someone who was strictly assigned to the task of updating the events related job descriptions in the College of Business so that I did not have to go through so much confusion in the initial application process.
Job Description:
“Assistants to the event manager will support the efforts of the Career Success Center and the College of Business through administrative and event-related activities.
- Support student professional development through events and programming of This Week in Business.
- Prepare necessary documents for career workshops and events.
- Organize and maintain office records, and perform general clerical duties including scheduling appointments, responding to phone, email and in-person queries.
- Update internal databases including Salesforce.
- Organize and facilitate professional development events.
- Partner with all staff in coordinating, marketing, and participating in events including career fairs, networking events, employer information sessions and classes, and more.
- Data entry.
- Partner with Student Engagement staff in coordination and marketing of events, including those within the College of Business Living-Learning Community.
Basic office skills (answering telephone, scheduling appointments, filing, etc.).
- Computer experience with Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point and Outlook.
- Highly responsible, self-starter, able to work with little supervision.
- Strong organizational and communication skills including attention to detail and time management skills.
- Able to maintain confidentiality.
- Ability to represent the Career Success Center with maturity and professionalism.
- Applicants should be able to be available each term.
- Ability to work collaboratively as a member of a team.
- Dependable and reliable with a positive attitude.
- Have a flexible schedule, outside of class hours.”
5 replies on “Week 3: Job Descriptions”
It was nice to see how you managed to attach your job description! I found my old job description but could not figure out a way to include it into my post. As I am reading your post, I am noticing a very common trend amongst people applying to jobs with old and/or out of date job descriptions. It’s a challenge for employers to continuously update the descriptions but I think it is equally a challenge for applicants to know the role and their expectations if they only have an out of date description as a reference. This is something that I think multiple businesses could work on improving, or find a way to encompass all key aspects of the current and future job.
I agree that sometimes as jobs are evolving, job descriptions are not. It can be hard for someone to outline the duties of a new job if they’re not sure themselves what will be included. With these jobs it is important to communicate with your supervisor if you feel as if something is wrong. When my new position was created, there was a lot of communication between us in the position and those who were curating it. We had to discuss what we felt should be included in our job and not in others and what overlaps. Since we are the ones in the actual position, at least here in the College of Business, we had some say as to what was included in the descriptions. We are able to give a better day to day activity account than someone outside the job.
I feel like it would be very difficult to hire the right person for the job if the position hasn’t been well defined yet. I’m glad that you had contacts and were able to get a feel for how the position would be changing but I’m sure that not having that that insight kept other applicants from considering the position. Though I’m sure that your knowledge and skills would have landed you the job regardless of the number of other applicants!
Hi Olivia,
I completely agree with you that the college of business job description is a bit out of date. Since I also work for the college of business I totally understand how the job description is a little unclear and when I first started working I was confused as to what I was supposed to do in my role. That is why I think accurate job descriptions are essential and should be up to date to make the on boarding process a lot easier.
Hello Olivia,
Nice job finding the job description, that one is super long and way more in depth compared to the one that I found for my position. It is super important that you had contacts in the industry that allowed you to get insight to the job that you were looking for. In just about every instance, talking to someone who is in the position is way more valuable than just reading the description. I also agree that the description that you listed was out of date, and they should take time and resources to update it to make it look more appealing.