Hey there, academic advisor!
If you’re applying for a job as an academic advisor, you know that your resume is the most important part of the whole process. That’s why we created this guide—it’s full of data, tips, and best practices to help you craft the best possible academic advisor, resume. Let’s dive in!
Methodology
The goal of this guide is to give you real data what the “must haves” of academic advisor resumes are.
To do that, we compiled and analyzed data from academic advisor resumes and 22 academic advisor job listings to get the data used for this our academic advisor resume guide.
In addition to academic advisor-specific resume data, we built a database of nearly 1 million resumes and job listings, and we use a propriety machine learning model to understand the anatomy of the best resumes in general.
Quick note: using the data below can help you build a competitive resume, but it’s always important to be creative, unique, and personal to stand out.
If you want more info on our methodology, you can check it out here.
Academic advisor resume objective data + academic advisor objective examples
Pop quiz: do academic advisor’s really need to use an objective?
In general, whether or not you need an objective or professional summary can depend a lot on your personal career level (check out our article on resume objectives), but this is what our analysis found for academic advisor’s specifically:
- 38% of academic advisor’s included an objective section
- 24% of academic advisor’s included a professional summary
- 44% of academic advisor’s included neither an objective nor a summary
Academic advisor objective examples
Prolific and results-driven academic advisor able to win independently or collaboratively team. Seeking to join a reputable institution as an academic advisor to help meet goals.
To obtain a position as an academic advisor at a reputable university, where I can utilize my strong communication skills and dedication to student success to support and guide students in achieving their academic and personal goals.
Seeking a challenging and rewarding academic advisor position at a higher education institution, where I can utilize my knowledge of academic policies and procedures, as well as my passion for student development, to help students reach their full potential.
As an experienced academic advisor, I am seeking a position at a university where I can utilize my strong interpersonal skills and thorough understanding of academic advising best practices to support and empower students in their academic journey.
Skills for academic advisor resumes
These are the skills that occurred most frequently in in academic advisor resumes, which means they tend to be core competencies or highly desired skills.
Of course, you should only list skills that you actually have, and you should prioritze skills most relevant to the job you're applying for. But these are good core skills to include on your resume.
To get more detail on building a powerful skills section, take a peek at our article on resume skills.
*Note: to find skills our machine learning model basically looks for common words, so take these with a grain of salt and use your best judgment.
Most common academic advisor resume skills
Most common hard skills for academic advisor resumes: administration, curriculum design, student assessments, mentorship, and student engagement.
Most common soft skills for academic advisor resumes: communication skills, caring attitude, time management, listening skills, and responsible.
Other good academic advisor resume skills
- Administration
- Curriculum design
- Student assessments
- Mentorship
- Student engagement
- Communication
- Caring attitude
- Time management
- Responsible
- Student guidance
- Coaching
- Teaching
- Interpersonal
- Analytical
- Operational
- MS Office
Academic advisor skills section examples
Note: these examples are formatted the same here just because it’s simple, but we have more detailed formatting advice (and examples) in our guide to resume formatting.
Academic advisor skills example 1
Administration | management | student assessments | mentorship | sales | leadership | student engagement
Academic advisor skills example 2
Curriculum design | emotional intelligence | communication | student engagement | caring attitude | curriculum design | time management
Academic advisor skills example 3
Analytical | responsible | patience | listening skills | coaching | curriculum design | teaching
Work experience for academic advisor resumes
Your work experience section is almost always the most important part of your resume. Because it’s difficult to pull trends from this kind of section, this section is mostly just examples.
For some advanced strategies for writing about work experience on a resume, refer to our article on building a strong work experience resume section. We also have a guide on writing a resume with no experience if you’re just starting your career.
For now, it’s good to remember that the most important experience for any academic advisor resume is the most relevant experience.
A couple examples for you:
Academic advisor work experience examples
WORK EXPERIENCE
Sr. Associate Academic Advisor
Candor Corp, 2021-2022
Responsibilities
- Handle returns or complaints
- Listen to customers’ questions and concerns and provide answers or responses
- Provide information about products and services
- Record details of customer contacts and actions taken
- Refer customers to supervisors or more experienced employees
WORK EXPERIENCE
Associate Academic Advisor
Acme Corp., 2015-2022
Responsibilities
- Review customer accounts and make changes, if necessary
- Take orders, calculate charges, and process billing or payments
- Advised students on program requirements and registered students to the program.
- Developed Student Success Action Plans for students on probation or in need of additional support.
- Maximized learning goals and interpreted and explained college and university policies to students.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Academic Advisor Intern
Moxie Group, 2011-2012
Responsibilities
- Crafted and delivered online classes and trained students on-site and virtually in preparation for exams and assignments.
- Managed office communications to promote dates, deadlines and upcoming events for students through a variety of channels.
- Designed and coordinated outreach campaigns to prospective students with calls to action that increased conversion rates.
- Advise, help and facilitate students through their academic plan.
- Providing educational resources and educators to help students be successful.
Education for academic advisor resumes
For most positions, work experience is more important than education, although it can be important for new grads or for fields in which specific classes are industry-standard.
So it’s not a big section, but it’s still important, and often, academic advisor job postings list a minimum education requirement.
Check out our blueprint for education on resumes for our full playbook on education sections.
Data from our sample of 408 academic advisor resumes
- 8% academic advisor resumes listed an associate’s degree
- 58% academic advisor resumes listed a bachelor’s degree
- 32% academic advisor resumes included a masters degree
- 0% academic advisor resumes mentioned a doctoral degree
Academic advisor resume education examples
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science
Loma Linda University, 2021
Awards & Honors
- Foreign Language Award
- Foreign Language Award
- Summa Cum Laude
EDUCATION
Associate of Applied Arts
Mt. Diablo Adult Education, 2015
Certifications for academic advisor resumes
Certifications aren’t a strict requirement for every job, but there are almost always certifications you can get to boost your chances of success.
If you want to see how to build these sections, we have a guide about certifications on resumes.
We did a little research and found certifications can help academic advisor’s specifically, according to CareerOneStop.
Academic advisor certification examples
CERTIFICATIONS
Certified Clinical Supervisor of Career Counseling
National Career Development Association, 2021
Certified Resume Specialist: Administration and Clerical
Career Directors International, 2015
CERTIFICATIONS
Global Career Development Facilitator, Certified Resume Specialist:Sales and Business Development, Certified Clinical Supervisor of Career Counseling
Academic advisor resume action verbs
Using our database of nearly 1,000,000 publicly available resumes, we compiled an index of action verbs and cross-referenced it with our sample of 408 academic advisor resumes and job postings to uncover which action verbs are most commonly used by academic advisor’s and academic advisor employers.
The most common action verbs on academic advisor resumes are: program, assist, process, prepare, and manage.
The most common action verbs on academic advisor job postings are: lead, plan, review, perform, and handle.
Other action verbs for academic advisor resumes:
- Develop
- Create
- Direct
- Field
- Track
- Resolve
- Monitor
- Report
- Organize
- Design
Full academic advisor resume example
Lastly, we wanted to give you a couple full academic advisor resume examples..
Please note: you can write a better resume than this. This is just a quick illustration to show you how these pieces might fit together.
If you’d like to see “perfect” resumes, we have a showcase of resume examples.
Academic advisor resume example
Jill Carlson
Academic Advisor
1800 Euclid Avenue, San Luis Obispo, CA
Seeking a challenging and rewarding academic advisor position at a higher education institution, where I can utilize my knowledge of academic policies and procedures, as well as my passion for student development, to help students reach their full potential.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Sr. Associate Academic Advisor
Candor Corp, 2021-2022
Responsibilities
- Participates in and conducts academic advisement sessions, which may include a range of support activities.
- Assists higher-level advisement personnel in analyzing academic records and maintaining appropriate records regarding student consultations.
- Responds to routine inquiries and issues; routes problems to higher-level personnel for resolution.
- Work with ADA students to collect proper paperwork for approval for accommodations.
Associate Academic Advisor
Acme Corp., 2015-2022
Responsibilities
- Work on a number of committees for the betterment of the school and students.
- Counsel and guide students in career planning, job searching, resume writing and interviewing.
- Provide private counseling to students, assess the ability and potential of students, and coordinate with fellow professionals on student matters.
- Receives guidance, training, and mentoring from professional personnel in planning and carrying out activities and assignments.
Academic Advisor Intern
Moxie Group, 2011-2016
Responsibilities
- Updates case load and call logs, collects data, and analyzes data for admissions representatives.
- Instructed college life course for students to receive information that will prepare them to complete their secondary schooling.
- Directed one-on-one meetings with students to help assist them with college applications, scholarships, internships, volunteer opportunities and individual success goals and public aid programs.
- May supervise student employees, volunteers and/or interns; may lead lower-graded staff.
CERTIFICATIONS
Oracle Service Center 2021 Certified Implementation Specialist
Oracle Corporation, 2021
HDI Support Center Director
HDI, 2015
SKILLS
Administration | student engagement | leadership | interpersonal skills | communication skills | research | responsible
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science
Loma Linda University, 2021
Associate of Applied Arts
Mt. Diablo Adult Education, 2015
What experts say about academic advisor resumes
Before we wrap it up, we want to leave you with some advice from other experts we admire.
“It’s really important that you take into consideration some volunteer experiences that you’ve had that you’ve gained a lot of relevant skills that you could flush out, and it could be a great experience that you have on your resume.” – THE TRUTH| My Resume That Got My Academic Advisor Job (+ mistakes to avoid)
“Pick those things that are going to complement the position that you are applying for and try to get that on one page at a good reasonable font size, and it just gives the employer an opportunity to just be able to look at everything on one page.” – What To Put On Your School Counselor Resume!
“Make sure that you include your counseling human services education as well as any additional education that you have and licenses that are pending or certifications that you have received during the process of receiving.” – Writing an Effective Counseling Resume
Want help with your academic advisor resume?
The resume is a powerful tool. It can help you get your dream job and make you more money, but it can also be an intimidating task.
Hopefully, after reading our guide, writing a academic advisor resume is a little less daunting. We’ve given you all the building blocks, now you just have to make it your own. If you need help actually building your resume, just let us know!
