Career Educator and Pre-Health Advisor

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community.

The career educator and pre-health advisor sits within Caltech Career Achievement, Learning, and Exploration (CALE), the centralized careers services office within the Division of Student Affairs. CALE serves Caltech undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs and recent alumni. The career educator and pre-health advisor will provide a broad range of advising, programs, and resources related to career pathways within the healthcare fields and STEM.

The candidate should be excited to develop new programming and build upon pre-existing resources. They will have responsibility for premed advising and premed programs. Historically each premed cohort has varied between 12-25 students per year, with the total number of premeds on campus averaging about 80 at any one time. Typically about half of these students go on to MD/PhD programs while the other half go on to MD programs. These students major in a wide variety of STEM fields and the successful candidate will focus on supporting and advising students applying to MD, MD/PhD and related programs. They will advise on academic requirements for such programs, provide training and advice on essays for medical school and other graduate health programs, and create and run panel discussions and workshops. The advisor will keep statistics on applicants in a database and create charts, graphs, and other analyses to support advising.

This role also provides undergraduate career advising as needed.

Premed Advising Job Duties:

• Provides advising on health and medical graduate programs and careers including individual advising and workshops on topics such as writing the medical school application essay, mock interviewing, and the student viewpoint on the application process, etc.
• Outreach and coordination of preceptorship programs with surrounding LA hospitals and medical centers. Some additional administrative support is available for these programs
• Acts as Caltech's official representative for the American Medical Colleges Application Service and writes the advisor's letter for students applying to medical, dental, pharmaceutical, or veterinary school
• Acts as advisor to the Caltech Premedical Association and other healthcare related student clubs
• Attends national and regional conferences and meetings related to the healthcare field/applications
• Writes advisor letters of recommendation for applicants to graduate medical programs
• Assists students in collecting, reviewing and assigning letters of recommendation as part of the application process
• Collaborates with the Hixon Writing Center to guide students on application essays
• Researches and maintains resources for local clinical and volunteer experiences for premedical students as well as other related professional internship opportunities
• Liaison to medical schools
• Produces audit of medical school requirements and statistics on medical school admissions, test scores, etc.
• Connects with relevant Caltech faculty and coordinates premed curricular committee
• Engages with MD/PhD or MD Caltech alumni and friends
• Works with Undergraduate Admissions as requested
• Other duties as assigned

Career Educator Job Duties

• Provides career advising for undergraduate STEM students including resume and cover letter review, mock interviews, job search strategies and career navigation, as needed
• Conducts workshops targeted towards STEM undergraduate students on career related topics
• Assists in maintaining data such as monthly counseling and activity statistics reports, and databases

• Master's degree in career counseling, counseling, higher ed, or other relevant field or a BA/ BS in a STEM field.
• Four years previous experience doing pre-health/pre-med counseling, pre-professional/graduate school advising or career counseling in a university or college setting at a research university or selective liberal arts college.
• Excellent organization and communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Ability to edit essays and teach essay writing and interviewing skills.
• Experience doing individual counseling/advising and giving workshops and group presentations.
• Strong public speaking skills.
• Must have the ability to work well with students majoring in science and engineering subjects.
• Basic knowledge of career opportunities with emphasis on medical and healthcare fields.
• Knowledge of counseling, human development, and career development theory.
• Experience using word processing, publishing and database programs.
• Experience working with students from a varied range of backgrounds and cultures is important.
• Ability to work cooperatively with others, follow through independently, and take initiative appropriately.
• Maintain confidentiality of student information, test scores, and other sensitive data.

• Familiarity with Caltech or a similar research focused STEM environment.
• Experience within Student Affairs.
• Experience in industry or a healthcare setting.
• Experience in medical or graduate school admissions.

Required Documents

• Resume or CV.
• Cover Letter.