Office Support Specialist

• Work closely with the Director of Graduate Studies – assist with graduate student contracts, offer letters, personnel action forms, position request forms, graduate assistant assignment approval forms, and all associated HRS forms.
• Word process letters, memos, envelopes, labels, course syllabi, and confidential and technical material, access and maintain office technology and web presence.
• Prepare material for mass mailings and mail merge.
• Prepare and tabulate graduate teaching and faculty teaching evaluations each semester.
• Prepare recruitment packets and personnel forms as required for undergraduate students, staff and faculty.
• Order and maintain office supplies and equipment.
• Perform general office duties utilizing judgment and initiative in accordance with departmental and college practices.
• Perform office duties in the absence of office staff on a routine basis to maintain a working knowledge of the position.

1. High school diploma or equivalent.
2. Any one or combination totaling two (2) years (24 months from the categories below:
   1. College coursework in any curriculum, a measured by the following conversion table or its proportional equivalent:
      • 30 semester hours equals one (1) year (12 months)
      • Associate’s Degree (60 semester hours) equals eighteen months (18 months)
      • 90 semester hours equals two (2) years (24 months)
      • Bachelor’s Degree (120 semester hours) equals three (3) years (36 months)

       

   2. Work experience performing office/clerical activities, including the use of computer systems.
3. One (1) year (12 months) of work experience comparable to the second level of this series.

1. Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, and other office procedures and terminology.
2. Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
3. Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
4. Knowledge of computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to enter data, or process information.
5. Skill in material resources management through obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
6. Skill in communicating effectively, both verbally and in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
7. Skill in decision making by considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions and choosing the most appropriate one.
8. Ability to understand written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
9. Ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
10. Ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
11. Ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
12. Ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
13. Ability to provide guidance and direction to subordinates, including setting performance standards and monitoring performance.

• Experience with Microsoft Suite
• Strong communication skills and the ability to function well with others in a congenial and tactful manner.
• Patience, cooperativeness, and ability to work as part of a team
• Confidentiality, accuracy, diplomacy, and persistence in follow-up.
• Possess the ability to set priorities and work independently.

• Click on Office Support Specialist for more information including salary ranges, typical duties, minimum acceptable qualifications, and testing requirements.
• Please click on Human Resource Services – Benefits for detailed information about Northern Illinois University’s benefits package.
• Applicant must be a current citizen or resident of the State of Illinois to move forward in the hiring process.
• Employment is contingent upon your passing a criminal background investigation. You may not begin work until the criminal background investigation results have been received and cleared by Human Resources.

• Fully complete the Education and Work History sections of the application. Be specific on your entire work history, including employment dates and duties for all positions held. Applicable part-time work experience will be considered toward qualifying for this position; however, it will be converted to a full-time equivalency to determine combined length of experience.
• If you have education and/or training in excess of what is required, we encourage you to upload your unofficial transcripts.
• After the posting has closed, your submission will be reviewed to determine if you meet the minimum qualifications for the classification, including any specialty factors associated with this particular position. If you meet the minimum required qualifications for this position, you will receive a score based on your education and experience, and your name will be placed on the active employment register.
• Please monitor your e-mail for further information regarding your application. Emails will be generated from jobs@niu.edu and CivilServiceTesting@niu.edu. Please add these emails to your address book to ensure timely delivery of any future communication.
• We STRONGLY recommend that contact information used in your online profile be personal use, not professional/work information: personal email address, home address and phone numbers. The information that you provide is used to make contact on search updates, department referrals and interviews, etc. We must be able to relay sensitive and important information in a way that protects your privacy concerning job search activity, now and in the future.

• The Civil Service examination for this classification is a Credentials Assessment and is based on your application materials as submitted for this posting. A Credential Assessment is a rating by the Human Resources Office of an applicant’s/employee’s education, experience and special credentials/qualifications (licenses, etc.). In order to determine an appropriate rating for each examination, a review of a résumé, cover letter, university/agency official employment application, college transcript, copies of license/certification and any other relevant material may be required.
• Required documentation noted in the posting, such as a driver’s license, licensures, or certifications MUST be uploaded with your application materials.
• If eligible for Veteran’s Preference Points, DD214/DD215/NGB22/DD256 paperwork reflecting an Honorable Discharge MUST be uploaded to this application in order to receive the maximum eligible points on the Civil Service examination.
• After assessment of all qualified applicants has been completed for this position, the names with the top three (3) scores will be referred to the hiring department for interview.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.