Career Education doesn't integrate into a campus ecosystem by itself. It takes intentional leadership. So, finding the right fit for a new leader is critical. Our Executive Search Consultant, Sharon Attaway, recently sat down with Andy Wilson, Associate Vice President for Student Success at Loyola University Chicago. Sharon worked with Andy and the Loyola University Chicago community to help find their next career services leader. During their conversation, Andy discussed his strategies for hiring effective leadership, upgrading skills for higher education leaders, and guidance for aspiring career center leaders. With over two decades of higher education background, Wilson shares insights on identifying and nurturing talent.
What are the most significant challenges when hiring leaders in the career services space?
For Loyola Chicago, the challenge was characterizing the opportunity realistically and aspirationally. It was important for the new leader to understand the vision for the next three to five years, specifically framing the chance to honor the past good work while also moving the team forward in a way that would have the highest likelihood of success. Loyola Chicago was looking to better harness career services to fit the moment.
We had emerged from COVID-19, been without a career center leader, and had an appetite for change, but it needed to be iterative.
The Collective helped us to figure out how to describe this to candidates, allowing a new leader to come in, get the lay of the land, and use their expertise.
You've worked in student success roles for over 20 years; what skills are essential for higher education leaders now that might not have been in demand earlier in your career?
A contemporary higher education leader takes a nuanced approach to consider all the unique needs and interests of students, faculty, alumni, employers, families, and everyone invested in students' success.
Leaders must be flexible, creative, and courageous. The ability to synergize and scale effort with the opportunity requires leaders to lean into all those voices with empathy.
Additionally, they seek a deeper understanding of what matters to their stakeholders, leverage that feedback, and create new paths that maximize their ability to serve better, support, and connect with students.
What advice would you give aspiring career center leaders - to build their portfolios to be competitive for leadership positions?
Career Services is a university-wide effort. Seek significant, diverse, and meaningful experiences with key stakeholders. Recruiting and stewarding the talent and energy of faculty, employers, and alums is needed in leading career centers. It requires a leader to be nuanced and curious.
You don't have to lead those areas but should know how to forecast their opportunities and concerns to leverage the team's talent.
Also, understanding the ed-tech landscape and being proficient in what's on the market will allow you to scale and build capacity, which is a huge asset for an aspiring leader.
How did you determine what type of leader you needed for this new phase on your campus?
We had gone through unsuccessful searches for a Career Services Director, partly due to COVID-19. Additionally, the university was trying to make meaning and its own decision about the role. We eventually elevated it to an Assistant Vice President, who reports to Student Success. As a Jesuit institution, Loyola Chicago is deeply committed to the principle of accompaniment as we serve the diverse community of 16,000+ students. We emphasize vocational discernment and have made it integral to the students' transformative journey.
As we reflected on what was needed to be successful in this newly created role, we sought a leader who would honor our traditions while also planning for and leveraging how ed-tech would enhance our ability to scale and provide a personalized, high-touch experience for our students.
As we screened prospective candidates, we looked for alignment with our institutional mission and closely considered those who could look at our current state and anticipate future needs. This new leader would need to challenge conventional methods, bridge competing goals and viewpoints, and transform barriers into bridges to serve and champion the holistic needs of our students.
The increased movement of staff within higher education has resulted in current staff and faculty serving on an increasing number of search committees. Can you share your approach to making it easier for staff and faculty to serve on search committees?
The culture of Loyola Chicago is truly exceptional, and it allowed me to approach this search differently. I am very familiar with traditional searches where the committee reviews 40+ submissions. I have also been represented by a search firm or used search firms to fill open roles. I greatly respected The Collective's ability to do their job and present the best candidates. Additionally, with this search, I was looking to truncate it because it would give us a competitive advantage in the search process.
That process involved me talking to candidates first, which was important, before putting them forward to my colleagues. Being new to the institution, I needed to leverage insights from other senior leaders internally and externally to Career Services in a manageable format. I asked three veteran senior leaders outside of Career Services to allot one day to meet with a smaller number of candidates and me. At the same time, the senior team in Career Services also met with this smaller group. From there, candidates moving forward were invited to campus to meet with other constituency groups.
This approach saved time and allowed for a personalized experience where candidates had several opportunities to engage with me and colleagues involved in the search process.
From a search management perspective, we had already gone through a failed search, and this approach helped creatively address the fatigue that might come when asking colleagues to serve on yet another search committee.
Once a candidate accepts the new position, what have you done to ensure their success within the first six months of their role?
The onboarding piece begins with the interview and screening of candidates. It should also be personalized to the individual candidate. At Loyola Chicago, mission integration is an essential aspect of a Jesuit institution, and we spent a lot of time defining what that means within Student Success.
Over the years, in those initial moments when onboarding leaders within my area, we have a lot of touchstones. In the first weeks, I meet daily to help make meaning of their experiences. I create opportunities for new leaders to meet with other campus stakeholders. Leading up to those meetings, I provide context and scene setting so that the new leader can land comfortably in those conversations. There are a few opportunities when it's helpful that I accompany them to those meetings.
I also rely on colleagues who participated in the search to help with onboarding. We gradually move to a cadence of weekly sessions. The other helpful piece in those first 90 days was providing lots of opportunities for listening, meaning-making, and reflection.
In the case of our new AVP, we didn't wait until the end of the 90 days to discuss what direction our newly imagined career services would take. We began to test, toss, adapt, and keep the best ideas, allowing us to coalesce around a new model and restructure the office.
It gave our new AVP opportunities to manage up, manage her team, and secure the resources needed. Overall, it has been a successful transition.
What do you wish applicants knew about the hiring process, particularly within higher-level administrative positions?
The standard rhythm of a senior-level search is very long, and there are different ways of preparing. It certainly helps to account for everyone looking at your submission.
My materials needed to look more academic in the last ten years because more faculty have weighed in as part of the selection process. To that end, I needed to emphasize teaching and publishing more, which differed from how I presented myself in earlier iterations.
Additionally, you don't have to be 100% interested before involving yourself in a search. I encourage you to talk to a search firm even if you're 50% curious. Invest the time in updating your documents. At the very least, you will learn something from engaging in this benchmarking process. It's not being disloyal to your current institution, and it's not wasting time.
My current role came from one of those conversations that I was initially 50% interested in, and my first impression of the role was not accurate. The more conversations I had, the more I realized that I shared many core values with Loyola Chicago. I wouldn't be here in this wonderful job without having had one of those conversations.
Lastly, as a career services leader, I recommend serving on search committees. Try to get yourself onto a higher-level search committee (Associate Provost, Provost) to see how a search firm works or how the committee works. It's particularly helpful to hear how they talk about candidates. Managing and participating in committees has taught me how to be a candidate better than anything I have ever done.
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Andrew (Andy) Wilson, PhD
Andrew (Andy) Wilson, PhD, serves as Loyola University Chicago’s inaugural associate vice president for student success since May 2, 2022. In this role, he oversees Student Academic Services and Career Services in the Division of Enrollment Management and Student Success, providing strategic leadership to enhance student success and career development.
Dr. Wilson has over 20 years of experience in higher education. He previously served as the Dean of Student Development at Johns Hopkins University, where he led initiatives funded by a $1.6 billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies to support first-generation and limited-income students. He also held faculty positions, teaching business,, and organizational psychology.
Before Johns Hopkins, Dr. Wilson was an administrator and faculty member at Emory University and held roles at Washington University in St. Louis and Virginia Commonwealth University. He has a PhD in counseling and human development from the University of Georgia, a master's in higher education from Virginia Tech, and a bachelor's degree from Winthrop University.
Sharon Attaway
Sharon is the Partner Engagement & Executive Search Consultant with The Career Leadership Collective. She leverages our vast network of and deep relationships with career services professionals to source innovative talent for open leadership positions with our university partners. Additionally, she regularly connects with career teams to help them identify solutions through our consulting, retreats, trainings, and leadership cohorts. Prior to her time with The Collective, Sharon led strategic employer engagement at Miami, Colgate, and Michigan Technological Universities. Along the way, Sharon and the teams she has led have also surfaced career on ramps and created experiences and events to help students connect their passion and purpose to the world of work. She has also been involved in first destination data collection and helping campuses share their alumni success stories.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Salisbury University and a Master of Science in Business from Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, she is a member of the inaugural Career Leadership Collective’s Mastermind cohort. You can connect with Sharon on LinkedIn or at sharon@careerleadershipcollective.com
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