Front Desk Intake & Advising Specialist

University of California; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 3,182,000 - 4,532,000; Full time

Job summary

University of California, Berkeley’s Haas Undergraduate Program Office is seeking an Intake Advisor to manage front desks, provide academic advising guidance, and route complex inquiries to Haas Advisors. The role covers daily office operations, forms review, and coordinated campus communications.

The position emphasizes DEI, professional training, and strong customer service in a fast-paced university setting.

Qualifications

• Basic knowledge of advising and counseling techniques.
• Skills in judgment and decision-making, problem solving.
• Ability to multi-task.
• Abilities in problem identification, reasoning, ability to develop original ideas to solve problems.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including active listening.
• Professional Learning and Growth. Actively contributes to a team environment that fosters and promotes a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging (DEIJB).
• Exemplifies Haas’ four Defining Leadership Principles: Question the status quo; Confidence without attitude; Students always; Beyond yourself.
• Completes required training on time.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, demonstrating a desire to establish and maintain positive & professional working relationships with colleagues, students and team members.

Responsibilities

• Manage and staff the reception area and maintain a professional and positive attitude when responding to inquiries, requests, or complaints from students, parents, faculty, or staff.
• Create communication strategy for reception area, along with signage for closures.
• Apply general advising concepts to identify students’ needs, provide prescriptive academic assistance with academic requirements, and provide referrals to Haas Academic Advisors, Haas Admissions Advisors, Haas Student Affairs staff, Deans, and/or other appropriate campus resources.
• Listen to and empathize with students experiencing a wide range of difficulties.
• Work with student workers to assist students in understanding college and major degree requirements (general education, breadth, majors, academic probation, dismissal, declaring candidacy for degree, upper division units, withdrawal). Explain deadlines and general College/Major policies (adding and dropping classes, incompletes, grading policies).
• Communicate University and College rules and regulations (unit limitations, AP credit, concurrent enrollment, minimum/maximum units, repeating courses, and time to graduation).
• Review and process petitions and forms that may require additional collaboration and communication with campus partners, such as Undergraduate Advising Staff and Office of the Registrar.
• Intake Advisor will refer students to Haas Advisors for more complex issues such as multiple degrees, or withdrawal from the University.
• Applies professional concepts to independently provide prescriptive advice and assistance to students on academic and degree progress and major requirements for the department / school / college. - 10%
• Identifies student needs for programs and services. - 10%
• Pull and analyze data to support strategic initiatives with campus systems such as CalCentral, Campus Solutions, BOA or Course Scheduling. - 10%
• Coordinates daily operational management with room reservations, supply orders, listserv maintenance, the sign in sheet and tasks related to overall office support. - 15%
• Communicates and exchanges information with other units of the organization and makes referrals to help students with their academic program (e.g., health service, disabled students program, Colleges / Schools, transfer center, academic departments, graduate division, etc.). - 10%
• Professional Learning and Growth. Actively contributes to a team environment that fosters and promotes a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging (DEIJB) within the unit and at Haas. Exemplifies Haas’ four Defining Leadership Principles: (1) Question the status quo; (2) Confidence without attitude; (3) Students always; and (4) Beyond yourself. Completes required training on time. - 5%
• Other duties as assigned - 5%

Skills

Advising techniques

Judgment & problem solving

Multitasking

Problem solving & reasoning

Communication skills

DEI/Belonging values

Leadership principles

Timeliness

Interpersonal skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in related area

Job description

University of California, Berkeley’s Haas Undergraduate Program Office is seeking an Intake Advisor to manage front desks, provide academic advising guidance, and route complex inquiries to Haas Advisors. The role covers daily office operations, forms review, and coordinated campus communications.

The position emphasizes DEI, professional training, and strong customer service in a fast-paced university setting.