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[dpotter1]

Hi,

I'm looking for a career in academic advising, and I currently have an MBA and teaching experience in secondary education.  Will this education and experience combination allow me to get my foot in the door, or is an MBA not valued in the world of academic advising?  Also, should I broaden my search to other areas within the colleges/universities that I am interested in with the hope to move internally to academic advising?

Thanks!

[zharkov]

I'll admit I don't have broad knowledge of which degrees academic advisors typically have, but I do know one (maybe two) people with MBAs who are academic advisors.  And to be clear, the school in question has a huge number of business majors.

[michigander]

As an academic advisor at a business school, I may be able to help.  Academic advising is one of a small number of fields in higher education that doesn't demand a degree in any one particular field.  As you do your networking, you'll discover that we come from all disciplines and backgrounds.  However, simply having an MBA and secondary teaching experience probably won't be enough to get you your first gig.

What hiring supervisors and search committees will be looking for is experience doing what academic advisors do:  interpreting complex policies and procedures for students; assisting and supporting students in making decisions about academic, career, and personal concerns; understanding, communicating, and embodying the mission of higher education; and so forth.

If you don't already have those kinds of experiences, you need to get them.  Start networking with academic advisors in your area.  In many locales, advisors from area schools have a formal or informal mechanism for meeting and sharing information.  Contact an academic advising office at any college or university in your area (maybe your alma mater?) and volunteer to do anything they'll allow you to do.  Join the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) and start reading the literature.  They maintain a web site that is a treasure trove of advising information and resources.  Get involved in your NACADA region.  Attend conferences and workshops and network, network, network.

There are at least two kinds of advising offices.  Central offices provide the entire range of advising.  Large departments, schools, and colleges sometimes have their own offices where they do specialized advising by discipline while the central advising offices deal with new admits, transfer students, undeclared students, and general education requirements.  Your MBA will be a plus if you are interested in a position at a business school or in a management, human resources management or finance department.

The region in which you're interested may differ, but in my locale the job market is flooded with applicants for advising positions, so you'll need to be able to offer a full resume of academic advising competencies and experiences to get a look.  Be aware that at some institutions advisors are also responsible for varying levels of student recruitment, and make some decisions about how interested you are in doing that.

[sibyl]

Since no one else has mentioned it, I'll chime in about the strategy of attempting a lateral move.

Lateral moves only work if you are able to develop experience in your first job that will help you get the second job.  If you come in to the financial aid office, for instance, it will be difficult to move into the academic advising office, even though a good case can be made that helping students navigate financial aid regulations is a lot like helping them navigate academic regulations.  So you need to choose carefully.

Michigander gives good advice (as usual).  Academic advising is a flooded subfield everywhere, for a couple of reasons: first, the entry requirements are pretty low; second, the general underemployment of humanities PhDs has led a lot of those individuals (and their cousins, the people who decided to get out ABD but remain in academia) to take a lot of these jobs. 

That said, if it is what you want to do, pursue it with zeal.  Good luck.