Academic Advisor
George Mason University · Fairfax, VA · 1 mo ago
$50k/yrFull-time
We need to produce HTML fragment with sections: About the role (maybe "About The Position"), Responsibilities, Requirements (maybe "Required Qualifications" and "Preferred Qualifications"? The instruction: use headings for section headings like About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule. We need to include sections only when posting has real specific content. The posting includes: About The Department, About The Position, Responsibilities (with subcategories), Required Qualifications, Preferred Qualifications. Also includes Pay Band: 04 Salary: Salary range starting upper $50k; commensurate with education and experience. That's pay info but says "commensurate with education and experience" which is vague; we should not include Pay section if it's just "commensurate with experience" etc. The rule: never emit a heading followed by filler/placeholder text (e.g. "commensurate with experience", "not specified", "N/A", "varies", "TBD") and never create Pay/Schedule/Benefits sections unless the posting actually states them. Here we have "Salary range starting upper $50k; commensurate with education and experience". That's partially specific: "starting upper $50k" maybe means starting salary up to $50k? It's ambiguous but still mentions a figure. However the phrase "commensurate with education and experience" is filler. The rule says never emit a heading followed by filler/placeholder text. If we include Pay section, we need to include substantive content. We could include the salary range statement as is. It's not purely filler; it gives a starting upper $50k. Might be okay. But we need to decide.
Schedule: Work Schedule: Full-time (1.0 FTE, 40 hrs/wk). Also Some evening hours will be required for certain recruitment events. The work schedule is subject to be conducive to office needs and position holder availability. That's specific enough: full-time 40 hrs/wk, some evening hours. So we can include Schedule section.
Benefits: Not mentioned. So omit.
Skills: Not explicitly listed; maybe we can incorporate under Qualifications. But we could have a Skills section if we extract skills from qualifications: organizational, verbal, written communication, multitasking, customer service, PC tools. But the instruction says prefer a few substantive sections over many thin ones. We could combine qualifications and skills into a Qualifications section. However they gave separate headings for Qualifications and Skills. We could include Qualifications (required and preferred) and maybe Skills as part of Qualifications. Safer to follow instruction: include sections only when posting has real specific content. We have Required Qualifications and Preferred Qualifications; we can combine into a Qualifications section with two sublists? Or we could have Required Qualifications and Preferred Qualifications as subheadings? But only allowed headings are the listed ones. We could put all qualifications under a Qualifications heading, using
- for each item. That would be fine.
Responsibilities: we have a list with subcategories; we can flatten into a single
- with each duty as
- . Must preserve all substantive information; we should not lose details. We'll list each duty as separate
- . The responsibilities are grouped: Student Advising (multiple bullet points), Student Affairs (multiple), Program Evaluation, Credentialing & Accreditation (multiple), Other Duties As Assigned (multiple). We'll combine.
About the role: we have About The Position paragraph. Also About The Department maybe considered "About the role"? The instruction: About the role heading for e.g. About the role, Responsibilities... So we can put About The Position under About the role. Could also include About The Department as part of About the role? Probably just About The Position.
We need to strip boilerplate: remove cookie/navigation/legal/EEO/equal-opportunity/scam-warning boilerplate, duplicated lines, and application instructions. Also remove Instructions To Applicants, Posting Open Date etc. Also remove "A Force for Innovation..." etc (that's about college/university/region/future). Those are not part of job posting core; they are boilerplate? The instruction says remove cookie/navigation/legal/EEO/equal-opportunity/scam-warning boilerplate, duplicated lines, and application instructions. The college/university description might be considered extra but not explicitly prohibited. However they said preserve ALL substantive information; do NOT invent or summarize away detail. The college description is substantive about the employer; maybe we should keep it? But the instruction about sections only includes certain headings; we could include a section like "About the Department" maybe under About the role? But they said use
for section headings (e.g. About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule). They didn't list "About the Department". So we should not create a heading for that; we could incorporate its content into About the role paragraph? But that would be mixing. Better to keep About The Department as a paragraph under About the role? The instruction: "Use
for section headings (e.g. About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule)." It says e.g., meaning those are examples, not exclusive? Likely they want only those headings. So we should not add other headings. We could put About The Department content inside a
under About the role heading (maybe as part of same section). That would preserve info without extra heading. Similarly About The College, About The University, About The Future, Mason Ad Statement, Equity Statement, Campus Safety Information are likely boilerplate/extra; but they are not explicitly listed as boilerplate to remove. However they are not part of the job description; they are generic university info. The instruction: "Remove cookie/navigation/legal/EEO/equal-opportunity/scam-warning boilerplate, duplicated lines, and application instructions." It doesn't say to remove generic university description. But to preserve ALL substantive information; the university description is substantive about employer. However the sections we can output are limited; we could still include them as
paragraphs without a heading, after the sections. That would be okay: we can have multiple
elements not under any heading? The instruction says output ONLY the HTML fragment; we can have headings and paragraphs. It didn't say we cannot have extra paragraphs outside headings. So we can include them as paragraphs after the sections. But to keep it clean, maybe we include them as part of About the role? Might be too long. However the instruction: "Prefer a few substantive sections over many thin ones." So we should not create many sections; we can have About the role, Responsibilities, Qualifications, Pay, Schedule. That's five sections. We can embed other info as paragraphs within those sections or as extra paragraphs after sections but without headings (maybe considered thin). Safer to embed them within About the role as a paragraph. Thus final HTML:
About the role
[combined About The Department and About The Position paragraphs]
Responsibilities
- ... ...
Qualifications
- Required: ...
- Preferred: ...
- with subtext. Could also have two
- under Qualifications? But that would be multiple lists; still okay.
Pay: we have Salary range starting upper $50k; commensurate with education and experience. Since includes "commensurate..." which is filler, but also includes a concrete figure. The rule: never emit a heading followed by filler/placeholder text. If we include Pay section, we must ensure the content is not just filler. The content includes both a figure and filler; it's not purely filler. I'd include Pay section with that sentence.
Schedule: we have full-time (1.0 FTE, 40 hrs/wk); Some evening hours will be required for certain recruitment events. The work schedule is subject to be conducive to office needs and position holder availability. We'll include that.
We must not include Job ID etc.
Now extract specifics.
About The Department paragraph: "The primary purpose of the Department of Information Sciences and Technology is to prepare individuals of competence and character for a successful career in academia, industry, or government in the areas related to information technology through their coursework, research, and professional development activities."
About The Position paragraph: "The primary purpose of this position is to provide comprehensive academic advising to students in the Information Sciences and Technology (IST) Department. The advisor supports student success by guiding course selection, degree planning, and university policies, while fostering engagement and retention. This role also involves collaborating with faculty, staff, and university offices to ensure a high-quality advising experience aligned with the department’s academic goals and student support mission. Some evening hours will be required for certain recruitment events. The work schedule is subject to be conducive to office needs and position holder availability."
We could combine both.
Responsibilities: list each bullet.
Let's extract:
Student Advising:
- Advises students in all academic matters, including academic policies, and course selection for the undergraduate and graduate IST department programs;
- As students progress through their academic program, provides support with any transfer concerns, pre- and co-requisite enforcement, necessary overrides, and graduation audits;
- Provides responses to admission, transfer and graduation inquiries;
- Provides outreach to all students, particularly those considered at-risk;
- Maintains communication with students via email and social media;
- Supports IST faculty by maintaining current information available for student advising;
- Manages multiple mailboxes and corresponding mailing lists;
- Participates in department, school, and university committees related to undergraduate academic advising, including Mason Academic Advisor Network (MAAN);
- Supports tracking and reporting for all activities including: overrides, at-risk students, terminated students, and graduation requirements.
Student Affairs:
- Assists the associate chairs in overseeing the program function and delivery;
- Participates in university wide programs and events such as admissions, orientations, advising, graduation, and other social and networking events;
- Generates correspondence in communicating with students, faculty, and other administrators in writing and via email or other communication means in response to students and other constituents' inquiries in fostering student success as needed.
Program Evaluation, Credentialing & Accreditation:
- Assists the associate chairs in planning, developing, improving, implementing and evaluating policies and procedures governing admissions, orientation, and registration processes, including enrollment management and graduation activities;
- Assists the associate chairs in collaboration, coordination, research and providing student data and statistics to perform data analysis towards improving the quality of the program and the student services function and departmental performances;
- Provides support for program review, including ABET, Nuventive, and Academic Program Review.
Other Duties As Assigned:
- Administers and processes surveys for students;
- Oversees and manages the IST PhD Qualifying Exams;
- Supports the faculty with organizing IST Research symposium, research events, and special events;
- Develops and maintains social media presence of IST;
- Other departmental needs that arise shall be met as appropriate.
Now Qualifications:
Required Qualifications:
- High school diploma or equivalent;
- Experience in setting and meeting deadlines;
- Knowledge of general office practices and equipment;
- Excellent organizational, verbal, and written communication skills, as well as be able to handle multiple tasks and prioritize accordingly;
- Customer service attitude that projects a competent and positive image of the department;
- Self-sufficient ability to use word processing, spreadsheets, database, PowerPoint/Prezi presentations, internet, and other current PC tools.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree, or an equivalent combination of education and experience is highly preferred;
- Demonstrated experience (typically 5 years) working at a university or in an administrative position;
- Previous academic advising experience;
- Extensive experience with Integrative Banner, DegreeWorks, Stellic, SalesForce, and MicroStrategy (ERP, BI, Report Writing);
- Familiarity with GMU policies and procedures.
Pay: "Pay Band: 04 Salary: Sal