Career Advisor

At the University of Waterloo, we create and promote a culture where everyone can reach their full potential. As an employee, you get support & opportunities that empower you to advance your career. Explore how we can bring big ideas to life, together. The University is a welcoming workplace for those of all abilities, interests, and expertise. As part of our workforce, you can do what you do best, every day.

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Job Requisition ID:

2026-03461

Time Type:

Full time

Employee Group:

Staff

Job Category:

Career and Employment

Employment Type:

Temporary

Department:

Co-operative and Experiential Education - Undergraduate and Co-op Team II

Hiring Range:

$67,688.63 - $84,610.79

Posting Information:
This posting is for an existing vacancy.

2 roles availible: one will be aligned to the Faculty of Math, and the other will be aligned to the Faculty of Health. This alignment is in support of faculty-tailored programming and relationship building

The internal posting deadline for this position is November 12, 2026 at 11:59PM.

Job Description:

Primary Purpose

Career Advisors support students and/or alumni to identify and achieve their career and employment goals. They help them to identify their values, needs and skills and use this information to seek out, engage in, and extract meaning from a wide variety of experiences. Each career advisor tends to work closely with a particular group of learners, such as undergraduate students, graduate students, students who wish to pursue professional or graduate school and/or alumni. There are opportunities to specialize within the role in areas such as career indecision or change, continuing education, navigating the co-op process, career curriculum development, peer advising supervision, etc.

Key Accountabilities

Support students and/or alumni in employment, career decision-making and strategy, further education, and/or co-op and work-integrated learning (WIL) contexts

• Develop strong, supportive advising relationships that are adaptable to people from all identities and experiences.

• Cultivate trust with people in one-on-one environments, centering attention on the values and needs of the person seeking service and creating an environment that encourages the development of self-efficacy, resilience, and career optimism.

• Facilitate reflection through active listening and interviewing skills to help people identify and synthesize self-information for use in a variety of career, employment, and further education settings.

• Capably help people to find and access the tools and resources that will help them identify and/or pursue their priorities and goals.

• Support people to understand and navigate sometimes-opaque employment and institutional systems.

• Facilitate learning through group advising, workshops, webinars, presentations, events and resources to meet student/alumni needs, customized to the audience (e.g., specific associations/academic programs; in and outside of the classroom).

• Guide people in accessing and using labour market and other sources of information to build their understanding of the world of work

• Tailor approach to setting (in person, by phone, online) and the individual’s needs through active listening, application of counselling microskills, and relevant content knowledge.

• Plan and run effective, tailored career- and employment-related events.

• Enhance programming for prospective and pre-arrival students across campus.

Strengthen on-campus reputation as source of curricular and co-curricular career learning and growth

• Support other on-campus Advisors in developing best practices-aligned services encompassing career education.

• Coach other on-campus Advisors on a case-by-case basis to enable effective career supports.

• Build relationships with campus colleagues to educate on referral processes, resources, and train-the-trainer opportunities.

• Build or facilitate access to career resources that anticipate and target campus partners’ needs in supporting students.

Deliver inclusive career education in partnership with CCA’s stakeholders

• Design creative approaches to supporting and guiding a community of students and/or alumni in career, employment, further education, cooperative education and/or other experiential education settings.

• Ground career development approaches in contemporary career education and student development theories (e.g., Narrative, Design Thinking, Active Engagement, Planned Happenstance, Career Construction).

• Maintain awareness of current career development issues and labour market trends

• Develop and maintain a thorough knowledge of other University of Waterloo and community resources.

• Develop training and tools for fellow Career Advisors; share expertise; support cross-training.

• Support Faculty personnel (instructors and academic advisors) to develop their confidence and depth of understanding of how to facilitate effective career and co-op conversations.

• Influence stakeholder perspectives on career education, such as: the value and pervasiveness of non-linear pathways, emerging labour market trends, relevant career development theories/metaphors.

• Collaborate with the Faculty Relations Managers and the Career Education Strategy and Communication Specialist to develop effective storytelling for clients.

• Educate and support student-staff and other student and alumni leaders/influencers in employment topics; collaborate on targeted events (in person and online).

• Promote awareness and understanding of CCA (e.g., through student orientation, outreach)

Bring functional leadership to key service(s) and portfolio(s). Areas of impact could include:

Alumni

• Partner with Waterloo alumni, often in time-limited situations, to find or create meaningful work and learning opportunities.

Career Exploration and Decision Making

• Support clients through individual and group engagement methods to deepen student/alumni self-awareness.

• This portfolio may provide the opportunity to meet clinical experience requirements for College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO).

Undergraduate and Co-op Employment Advising

• Support students to gain employment (resumes, cover letters, managing online presence, work search tactics, interviews, negotiating salary).

• Guide and support students new to co-op in navigating the co-op employment process.

Further Education

• Support people to identify and work toward their further education goals; often related to health employment goals.

• Research and organize profession-specific resources and admission policy information for graduate school, professional school and college programs.

Graduate Students and Postdocs

• Partner with Master’s students, PhD candidates and Postdocs to navigate the world of career and employment in any sector.

Peer Advisor Programming

• Support CCA’s Career Leader program, including recruiting, training, scheduling, coaching team of 10-20 student-staff; ensure quality of service.

• Support CCA’s training and mentorship role for student leaders across campus, including training, coaching Housing Dons and Teaching Assistants for Career Fundamentals course (PD1) and Coop Fundamentals for Engineering module

Additional functional leads also exist for special initiatives and curriculum development work.

*All employees of the University are expected to follow University and departmental health and safety policy, procedures and work practices at all times. Employees are also responsible for the completion of all health and safety training, as assigned. Employees with staff supervision and/or management responsibilities will ensure that assigned staff abide by the above, and actively identify, assess and correct health and safety hazards, as required.

Required Qualifications

Education

• Undergraduate university degree required

• Courses, training, certification/degree or equivalent experience in Trauma-informed Counselling, Ethics, Career Development and/or Social Work would be a strong asset

Experience

• Experience listening actively and using counselling/advising approaches and skills (preferably in a professional development or career development context)

• Experience creating safe spaces for trusting/helping conversations

• Experience setting aside any preconceived ideas, structures or assumptions of what knowledge or conventions would be best for someone else

• Formal or informal experience navigating complicated bureaucratic systems

• Experience/interest in facilitating reflection and learning within group settings, large and small

• Established ability to develop creative, tailored curricula and resources

• For the Graduate Student Support portfolio: deep appreciation for, and experience with, how the journey of earning an advanced degree intertwines with identity

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

• Active listening and intentional verbal and written communication skills

• Non-judgmental, empathetic and creative approach to working through challenges is a must

• Ability to avoid sharing “expert” advice and instead focus on supporting people in their own learning and reflection

• Commitment to deepening advising skill through individual reflective practice and professional development, as applicable

• Awareness of own social location and how it affects the power and privilege in advising relationships

• Ability to learn material and complex processes, and work within these structures, not just memorize information

• Understanding of professional scope and able to make appropriate referrals to community, institutional, and student-run services, considering potential barriers that individuals might face in accessing them

• Openness to group learning; interest in pedagogy, group learning theories and activity-based learning

• Ability to build relationships and collaborate with colleagues both inside and outside the department

• Ability to develop and coordinate projects and programs, delivering quality programming while meeting deadlines

• Ability to manage own schedule and balance competing priorities in a fast-paced work environment

• Appreciation of the purpose and value of quality work-integrated learning / co-operative education in preparing students for work/life is preferred

• Ability to maintain working knowledge of relevant technology, including facilitation tools (e.g., polling platforms), social media and online platforms (e.g., e-portfolios; LinkedIn)

• Ability and commitment to resourcefully research and maintain information relevant to the Advisor’s portfolio (e.g., labour market trends, admissions information for further education programs, services for making appropriate and well-informed referrals)

Knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft Teams, Google Docs, and other online productivity tools (e.g., for webinars and one-on-one online engagement)

Equity Statement

The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is coordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations.

The University values the diverse and intersectional identities of its students, faculty, and staff. The University regards equity and diversity as an integral part of academic excellence and is committed to accessibility for all employees. The University of Waterloo seeks applicants who embrace our values of equity, anti-racism and inclusion. As such, we encourage applications from candidates who have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized, including applicants who identify as First Nations, Métis and/or Inuk (Inuit), Black, racialized, a person with a disability, women and/or 2SLGBTQ+.

Positions are open to qualified candidates who are legally entitled to work in Canada.

The University of Waterloo is committed to accessibility for persons with disabilities. If you have any application, interview, or workplace accommodation requests, please contact Human Resources at [email protected] or 519-888-4567, ext. 45935.