academic advisor

admission counselor

data analyst

software engineer

assistant director

Liberty University

Working as an admissions counselor is a pretty exhausting job. You run into a lot of frustrated students who take it out on you, and if you have a very low amount of patience it can really get to you. 

The standards are also INCREDIBLY high.  We aren't graded on things like call time or applications which is a HUGE plus compared to the average call center position. For the enrollment team we are only graded on 2 things primarily, the content we covered and how we covered it. The issue is we are graded BRUTALLY on some parts. I expect to have points counted off on a call if I do not cover information I am supposed to with a student, but there are vague things we are graded on like "professionalism" and "ownership". If I use the same word to many times in one call, they will take off points for being unprofessional. Ownership is even more vague, it's basically going "above and beyond" but is required. For instance, if we tell a student they may qualify for a discount but do not walk through the process of how they can verify if they qualify, that's losing points on ownership. If a student asks if we use financial aid and we say yes but don't explain how to complete financial aid and link it with the school, that's points off for ownership. 

Additionally, since the standards are so strict and so vague, pretty much every person will grade a call differently and have different standards. I've gotten bad scores on a QA because I followed exactly what I was told in training, but since the person reviewing felt like it was unprofessional or felt like I didn't take ownership, they count off and tell me that I should have done it differently. It's also basically impossible to fight against a badly graded call because they don't actually allow for any time during the week to review your Quality Assessment scores or the calls. I have to use personal break time to go back and listen to calls, where I'll notice that the QA team was actually wrong and that I did cover items they marked incorrect. It's extremely frustrating. 

That being said, the culture of the other employees is phenomenal. Working remotely you'd think that you wouldnt interact with your team very often, but you do and everyone is in good spirits and kind. Other agents are always willing to help you on a call or with a situation and the culture is very positive.

Additionally, the benefits are great. There aren't easy opportunities for raises but after working in the dept for a while there are plenty of opportunity for growth by becoming a senior agent, trying out other departments or becoming an AD. They will only fire you if you refuse to improve. Even if you are terrible at the job they are gracious and will work with you as long as you're willing to work on yourself. The training is thorough and is a very enjoyable fun process. The best benefit is the way we utilize time off.

Taking time off has to be PTO, and you get 11 hours of PTO every month. You can pretty much use PTO whenever and for whatever reason. You aren't expected to give a reason, even if it is last minute and you are NEVER guilted into not using your PTO. Sometimes they will not let you use PTO on certain days in the busier seasons but they let you know this far ahead of time and if it's an urgent issue they will work with you. 

Sorry for the long review, but I feel people should know the experience I had while working for LU custodial...

I worked here for 5 years, the job was great when I first started. However, as time has passed, a downward spiral has occurred. There is not a cohesive team. Morale is low. Confidence in management is low or nonexistent. There's a very limited amount of flexibility. The workload was fair. However, on occasion, supervisors had extreme expectations. If supervisors saw a dust bunny, you would be reprimanded. As for my relationships with the supervisors and those higher up. For the first 2 years of my job, I had an excellent relationship with my supervisors and during that time I was treated with respect. I was treated with kindness & with an acknowledgment for my value to the team. My supervisor was approachable and I felt comfortable asking questions or for help. During my last 3 years is where the downward spiral has occurred. Asking your team members for help was discouraged or not allowed without approval from the supervisor. Then, on the other hand, we have been told to ask team members for help. Discerning when you are able work as a team and when you couldn’t became very difficult. There is a negative atmosphere in this department. Reprimands and negativity abound.  Encouragement and gratitude are minimal. You also don't get much of a raise. I worked there for 5 years and I didn't even receive a dollar raise by the time I left. 

This is an example of an issue I had working here:
"A supervisory tactic has recently come to my attention: sneaking around to video record/take photos of employees to “catch” poor employee behavior. To put it frank this type of behavior from management is ridiculous. I once found a sticky note, strategically placed, saying, “ We see you”.  A professional manager would use positive management skills to approach me right then and discuss the issue at hand." (this is a statement taken from my exit interview)

On a positive note: my education was paid for so I have a very small amount of student loans. The benefits were also great while I was working there. Their health insurance is great! The amount of vacation/sick days plus holidays that an employee gets is extremely adequate. While I was there, I received 14 vacation days, 5 sick days, and then all of the holidays.

I completed my two hundred and seventy hour internship with the Liberty University Track and Field office. During this time I worked closely with the Director of Operations, filing paperwork, creating itineraries for track meet, paying volunteers, and helping with an array of other tasks that needed to be completed. But when I was not working in the track office I was helping creating workouts for the vaulters, doing research to find the best workouts that were available to help the program. Since I am a pole vaulter I worked with the vaulters and decathletes because they are the only other athletes that work with pole vault. Over my internship I learned many things that I was not aware I would learn, saw strengths and weaknesses of the program. A weakness of this internship was also a strength of the internship was the freedom in it. While there was certain aspects that needed to get done for the day, I had the freedom to work on workout plans do training with the athletes, and experiment with trial and error to learn from my mistakes. Since there was no workout plans specifically for the vaulter, I was able to use my knowledge and athletic experience to develop a workout plan that I believe will be effective. Another strength of this internship was that the people that you work with, while they do not have interns normally because of the graduate assistants, they are very accommodating and always find something for you to do that would help out someone. Whether it be organizing a file, making copies, or helping with the meet packets, there was always something. A lot of the job that the intern does it getting something started and then someone comes in behind and finishes it, for instance, with the meet packets, I helped staple all the entries and make sure all the information was printed out and a GA would come in during practice and compile everything and organize everything to go in the packets. The co-workers were great and always in good spirits and a joy to come into the office and see everyday. I learned that over this career I just want to help people become better at their skills, and develop a healthy lifestyle as well to become fit for life.

A typical day involved alternating between making cold calls on an automated dialing system and receiving incoming calls. That was it normally, for 8 hours straight with a lunch break. If busy, you might be taken out of the dialing system to answer calls back-to-back; if it was slow, you'd have to make cold calls often with less than a minute break between so it was very mundane. The best part of the job was when you worked at the visitor center and met visitors that were sweet and genuinely appreciated your help or gave presentations. Also the quarterly "picnics" we had were nice and gave us 3-4 hours off the phone those days. The morale fluctuated over the years, but when I left the culture was pretty bad, more so from the management as it was numbers-driven and heavy importance was put on covering everything from the Call Flow just right. My co-workers were great and really the best part. They worked hard and put up with a lot both from outside and inside the office.   So many changes were implemented that it seemed you could never make plans as managers would switch your position, preferred hours, and job description to something new.  Some of the worst aspects of the job I'd say were feeling like you had no support from management (mainly hearing from them when you did something wrong), not being able to really talk or connect with co-workers, and having to handle stress of taking non-stop, usually unpleasant calls of people who would get upset at you (and sometimes rightfully so because we called every few days). Upper management put a lot of pressure on supervisors, which in turn they put on the counselor by micromanaging. It was so bad that if you went over you break or lunchtime for the day by even a minute you were questioned, being told you needed a doctors note if it was bathroom related. They promoted "yes" people that wouldn't question the "why" even if they were immature in leadership. The main things I learned (besides a decent paycheck) was how to stand up for myself, confidence in my abilities, and public speaking. I recommend you stay away if you want to keep your sunny disposition!

Being a language tutor with LUO has been going great and I see myself doing this for years moving forward as well. Language tutors are paid even when not all appointment slots are filled and work most of the year except during Christmas. So, though you are only at $11 an hour, there is a lot of down time and since this is work from home, you can do what you want with that free time while still being on the clock. Honestly, coming from a freelance foreign language tutor background (and working on language tutoring sites where it is more about who can offer the cheapest services, literally as low as $2-5 an hour) and getting that big chunk of independent contractor tax deducted off of what little I made there, having this job where you are garanteed 20 h/wk for about 50 weeks of the year (and get a W-2!) is amazing and pays more in the long run (saves the extra effort of having to market yourself to individual students, not to mention find new students to replace ones who don't need you anymore, on the freelance side of things). The job itself is very easy seeing as I have already had a lot of tutoring experience before and the students receiving tutoring are at beginner level (in addition, YOU don't have to prepare anything. THEY must bring their assignment to you). You must include management in every email of communication you send. You may change your 20 hours around every semester, and time off will not be given on weeks 3, 5, and 7-8 during a semester session because students are required to book a session with the tutor to get points (so, those weeks are usually fuller but still manageable). Would overall recommend, never imagined I could a set up like this!


    Career Growth: I feel like I've reached a plateau in my current role and want new challenges and opportunities to learn and grow in my career.

    Better Compensation: I believe that my skills and experience are undervalued in my current position, and I'm seeking a role that offers better compensation and benefits.

    Company Culture: I'm looking for a company culture that aligns more with my values and work style. This could include a better work-life balance, a more collaborative environment, or a company with a stronger commitment to diversity and inclusion.

    Geographic Location: I may be looking to relocate to a different city or region for personal reasons, and I want a job that accommodates that change.

    Job Security: If my current position is unstable or there are concerns about the company's financial health, I might be seeking a more secure job elsewhere.

    Skill Misalignment: My current job may not be utilizing my skills and strengths to their full potential, and I'm seeking a position where I can make a greater impact.

    Passion and Interest: I want a job that aligns more closely with my passions and interests, allowing me to do work that I truly love.

    Professional Development: I'm looking for a position that offers more opportunities for training, skill development, and career advancement.

    Better Work-Life Balance: If my current job requires long hours or excessive travel that doesn't align with my personal life goals, I might be searching for a role with a better work-life balance.

    Conflict or Discontent: If I'm experiencing conflicts with colleagues or management, or if I'm generally unhappy in my current role, it's a strong motivation to seek a new position where I can thrive.

There are a host of intelligent and creative individuals here. I have met and worked with some and have heard of many others. What has always worried me and what, I believe, is the source of many of my and others' problems is that many of those smart persons are not in affective positions of high authority. Instead, much (not all) of high leadership is packed with individuals who refuse to apprehend the limitations of employee offerings and are, at best, disconnected from quotidian goings-on, until there's a "fire" and they need to yell at someone (in order to grind them down into the dirt that is used to smother said fire). I'm not even going to get into the big "news-worthy" controversies of 2020, because my listed issues may be enough to bring others pause.
I might lose my temper if I even mention pay, but will say in brief that the era of being underpaid because LU is in/near the Red has long passed; yet, you wouldn't know it from the average employee's pay stubs.
I really have enjoyed working here for 10ish years and have only started feeling an unease, partly due to "The Watcher" and partly due to having to interact with other, people-grinding execs. I was once tempted to assume that the issues I've seen were symptoms of all large companies, but have spoken to enough people who have escaped the "Liberty Bubble" to know better.

The call center Academic Advisor position was one of the most stressful positions I have ever endured. After training,  I felt I had been thrown into the wolves. A majority of the students are rude, mean, and angry about things brought on by management. For instance, students calling in about issues do not speak to the same advisor, therefore are having to explain the same issue numerous times to receive an end result, escalating the situation. A problem that could be easily solved by assigning advisers by degree area. Advisors are expected to know the ins and outs of all 450 programs and can speak with an aviation student one second and a DSL student the next, making it extremely hard to fully understand all program specifics. Management continuously calls out to students, sends email blast, voicemails, etc so that even on slower days, employees do not get a break (other than the 20 minutes of personal break per day) You are expected to be waiting for a call every second of the day, and due to these call outs, will rarely ever be sitting by idly waiting. When calling out to students, you have no information about the student until they answer, making it awkward when the purpose of the call is to sign up for classes… But you have not had time to pull up their degree to tell them what classes to take. You are expected to be “on ready“ At all times to maintain utilization standards and only given 60 seconds to completely notepad an entire call, whether that call was five minutes or fifty. Every second of your day will be micromanaged to the hilt. 

I loved being a student at LU. However, working in the Demoss Computer Lab "support desk" was the worst student worker job I have ever had. I'd rather clean toilets than go back to work there. The management and full time staff are lazy, play favorites, and don't actually want to help you succeed. They hide in the back and make you do all of the work. They gossip about other workers, both behind their backs and in front of other student workers. The "supervisors" would have the most petty things to say about student workers, and it would distract them from doing their actual job. The immaturity, gossip, and laziness among the staff was overwhelming. You have a "coach" that is supposed to help you learn tech things so that you can be better at your job. It is a complete joke, all they do is make you watch youtube videos for an hour isolated in the back of the room. When you ask questions, you are not given answers. They are no help. You get paid $7.25 per hour, pay is still very low for full-timers. My student-worker co workers were very pleasant to be around and I made lots of friends there. Student workers were not the problem - management was the problem. They have been there too long and are set in their ways, not open to change, and don't care about helping you succeed.

-Typical day is hectic and constant on the phones. 
-I learned a LOT about the entire financial structure around university's and how it works throughout the entire organization. 
-Management is not helpful at all. Your direct supervisor is the most helpful and even then they are extremely limited in the power they hold, they are more like really nice people that just tell you what you want to hear but can't actually change anything. 
-Workplace culture is amazing. You will be hard pressed to find better people to work with. Some of the most fun individuals I have ever had the pleasure of working with in my life. 
-The hardest part of the job is the work. It is very difficult to balance the workload and anything else in your life. The calls are very constant and the university tows the line of  overworking their people 2-3 times a year with no end in sight. They will claim their "busy season" is only for 1 or 2 months out of the year but that is far from the truth. August is their busiest month but even July and September have residual traction that makes all 3 months very difficult and the university could care less if they lose people in their busy season or not.  

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Academic advisor 9 salaries reported	$17.48 per hour
Admission counselor 6 salaries reported	$35,750 per year
Data analyst 6 salaries reported	$52,333 per year
Software engineer 3 salaries reported	$82,667 per year
Assistant director 8 salaries reported	$52,750 per year

Working at Liberty University: Company Overview and Reviews

Liberty University

Liberty University Ratings

Popular jobs at Liberty University

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected