Anyone work in University 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?

Blanket ban on leave from day we get A Level results (about 4 days before the students do) - so from 13 August this year.

On the other hand if it's for PG Admissions only (unlikely!) you'll be fine.

Thanks Titchy that's really helpful. It will mostly be undergraduate admissions and I was expecting not to be able to take annual leave around A level results time. My kids finish school around 20th July so I was thinking that I could take 2 weeks as soon as they break up and be back to work by 5th August. I'm just a bit worried that if this place has a blanket ban for the whole of August then a family holiday in the summer will become impossible.

By the way Titchy when does your annual leave ban end (is it end of August or later)? Also, do you have any restrictions on leave at any other times of year? In my current role we are not allowed to take any leave during term-time but can take what we want during University vacation time which obviously works well with school-age children.

We're a recruiting institution (so we keep Clearing open for ages) so wouldn't allow holiday for at least two weeks post results. Others though would have everything wrapped up within a week.

No blanket bans on other times, but ask whether they'd expect you to work open days - these are often at weekends, and doing enrolment - this can go on into the evening.

As well as weekend Open Days you may be expected to give up your weekends to work at Interview/Selection Days and Visit Days. You may also be expected to work longer hours after the Christmas break to process the 15th Jan deadline applications. So between January and Easter you can end up working long hours six days a week. Having to be smiley and enthusiastic on a Saturday Visit Day when you've already worked five long days can challenging when all you want to do is spend time with your family but it can also be incredibly rewarding knowing you are making people's dreams come true. I won't lie, it can be a real juggling act with school aged children. Of course what you are expected to work will vary hugely from uni to uni so best to find out once they have offered you the job but before you accept it!
Good luck!

Check what their involvement is with registration, ours have an embargo period during registration as well. That's late September to early October for 2 weeks.

I don't think asking about when compulsory periods are and what sort of extra hours (Saturdays, open days etc) makes you look uncommitted. I think it makes you look like someone who is clued up enough to ask.

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!

Yup, as I pointed out in an earlier post Admissions is not usually family friendly. If it's an area you're particularly interested in, you could search around in case there are any local uni's with less draconian leave policies, or wait until your DCs are older. At least you found out now!

Did you get offered the job? If so, have you decided what you'll do?