The job of an orientation leader is important. New student orientation molds a student’s perception and feelings about their new school, so it’s important that they have a positive experience. The orientation leader is responsible for curating and overseeing this experience.
When filling this role, hiring managers will be looking for someone with relevant experience and certain soft skills. Hiring managers will look for someone with an undergraduate degree and may look for someone who actually attended the college or school.
Orientation leaders must be able to empathize and connect with groups of young people while creating an orientation experience that is both engaging and educational. Ideal candidates for this role will have experience working with young audiences, and important soft skills like great organizational abilities, creativity, and superb communication skills.
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An orientation leader is someone who plans and delivers the new student orientation at a college or university. These professionals coordinate with the orientation team, faculty, and current students to create a comprehensive orientation program. They may plan items like icebreakers, activities, registration and enrollment support, and more for new students.
When hiring for this role, hiring managers will be looking for someone with a bachelor's degree in a relevant field like psychology, education, or liberal arts. Hiring managers may want to hire a candidate who attended the school themselves. They will also look for someone with experience working with the youth, such as prior roles as a camp counselor, teacher’s liaison, tutor, or youth group leader. It’s important that a candidate for this role has the right soft skills, which include an outgoing personality, strong organizational skills, and creativity.
Working with large groups of young students is no walk in the park. Having experience supervising and coordinating groups of young people, such as previous experience working in schools or summer camps, will help you land this role. If you don’t have this experience already, you may consider taking a seasonal job as a camp counselor to build your skills in managing and supervising young audiences.
Apart from supervising groups of new students, orientation leaders are also typically responsible for planning and executing activities and schedules for each day of the orientation program. It’s very important that you demonstrate event planning capabilities to land this role. Be sure to note any event planning experience you have on your resume. If you want to improve your planning skills, you may consider getting a certification in event planning.
The orientation team leader is a managerial role who oversees the performance of orientation leaders, as well as tasks like organizing and cataloging paperwork, training orientation leaders, communicating with the families of new students, and more.
This job requires demonstrated leadership skills. When recruiting for this role, hiring managers will be looking for a candidate with a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field like education or psychology.
A great candidate for this role will have experience supervising groups of young people, as well as some experience managing direct reports. An ideal candidate for this role will have strong leadership skills, organizational skills, and experience managing staff as well as groups of young people.
In addition to overseeing the day-to-day operations of new student orientation, orientation team leaders also need to be able to manage junior staff. Orientation team leaders need to train orientation leaders to ensure all students receive the same experience. For this reason, you should highlight any experience you have training or managing junior staff on your resume.
To land a job as an orientation team leader, you must have strong experience working in settings with students, such as in previous roles as a tutor or student services coordinator. Your resume should clearly outline what work you have done with students, and what results you produced with those students, on your resume.
As a hiring manager who has recruited orientation leaders at universities like Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, I've seen countless resumes for this role. The best resumes showcase the candidate's ability to guide and support new students, communicate effectively, and demonstrate strong leadership skills. In this article, we'll share six essential tips to help your orientation leader resume stand out from the competition.
Recruiters want to see that you have experience working with students and helping them navigate new environments. When listing your relevant experience, be specific about your responsibilities and the impact you made.
Avoid vague or generic descriptions that don't showcase your unique contributions.
A resume summary, also known as a professional summary or summary statement, is an optional section that appears at the top of your resume. It's a brief overview of your professional experience, skills, and achievements that highlights your most relevant qualifications for the job you're applying for.
While a summary is not strictly necessary, it can be a valuable addition to your resume if you have extensive experience or are making a career change. It allows you to provide context and emphasize how your background aligns with the position you're seeking. However, it's important to avoid using an objective statement, as they are outdated and focus on what you want rather than what you can offer the employer.
When writing the work experience section of your resume for an orientation leader position, focus on your relevant experience organizing events, leading groups, and helping new students. Use strong action verbs to describe your responsibilities and quantify your achievements whenever possible.
Here are some key tips to keep in mind as you write this critical section of your resume:
Your education section is a critical part of your resume as an orientation leader. It shows hiring managers that you have the necessary knowledge and training to excel in the role. Here are some key tips to make your education section stand out:
On your resume, you should make sure action verbs are used to describe previous experiences, achievements, and skills. You should start bullet points with an action verb and avoid overuse of the same action verb. Using action verbs makes your resume stand out as strong and confident.
You will also want to ensure the action verbs you choose are relevant to the role. When it comes to choosing action verbs for an orientation leader role, you should think about the key aspects that make someone good at this role. Since this role requires strong leadership and organizational skills, some good action verbs are “supervised” or “facilitated”.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
When applying for an orientation leader role, you’ll need to ensure your resume highlights the relevant skills and qualifications for the role. Many organizations use ATS (applicant tracking software). To get past the ATS, you must ensure your resume features the skills and keywords they are looking for.
You can list your skills in a separate column or work your skills into your previous job descriptions. Either way, you need to identify the key skills hiring managers are looking for. You can do this by studying the job posting for desired skills and checking out our list of relevant skills for orientation leaders below.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Orientation Leader job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
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