Anyone work in Admissions?

[nickEcave]

I currently do administrative work in a student support service and have an interview for an Admissions Officer role at another university quite a bit closer to where I live (it would shave around 5 hours a week off my commute). I am very interested in the Admissions Officer role but I have school aged children and I am a bit concerned that I might not be able to take any leave during the school summer holidays as this is obviously going to be the department's busiest time.

I'm nervous about asking about the leave policy at interview in case it makes me sound uncommitted to the job, but I wondered if anyone who works in university admissions could let me know what their leave policies are like and whether there is a blanket ban on leave during August.

Not in admissions currently but previously did for 5 years. It would be unreasonable for them to say a blanket ban for whole of August but you would be expected to be around during results period. I wouldn't ask about it at interview but instead find out about the team structure - will you have support/ are there others involved? The busiest time when we needed all hands on deck was results week and immediate week after. Depends also how much recruitment your dept/school will need to do and how much is centralised.

Unless... you're in central admissions in which case you may need to be flexible but should also have scope for others to cover.

Good luck!

I went for the interview and there's a blanket ban on leave for the whole of August and September. Not sure they will offer me the job as it is obvious from my work history that I have children and this is terribly unfamily-friendly!