Financial Aid Specialist (FAS)

Guild is reinventing the Education Benefits category - bringing innovation to the tuition reimbursement software and corporate training programs of the Fortune 1000, helping thousands of working adults go back to school and improve their lives. Think Workday or Taleo for Corporate Education Benefits - a $17B market that’s ripe for disruption.

Guild’s education benefits software platform makes offering education as a benefit an easy choice for F1000 companies, with products and features that helps HR leaders turn their education cost centers into a positive ROI. Meanwhile, Guild’s network of online, nonprofit universities and learning providers offer a consortium of classes, programs, and college degrees, along with college advising and retention coaching, helping each student navigate the worlds of work and college.
We are a mission driven, double bottom line company. In mid-2017, we closed a $21M Series B from top tier investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Social Capital, Harrison Metal, and Cowboy Ventures and have expanded from our founding team to more than 65 employees. Our clients include Chipotle Mexican Grill, DaVita Healthcare Partners, HealthOne / Hospital Corp of America, Taco Bell, Denver Public School District, and the Public Service Credit Union. 

The mission of our Financial Aid Specialist (FAS) is to:

... assist students as they submit the required documentation to complete their Federal Financial Aid application and seek additional financial support to start or return to school. You will be a Guild ambassador and trusted partner who believes in the power of education for students making transformational life decisions to use their education benefits and advance their professional opportunities.

In this role you will:

• Engage with interested prospective students during the enrollment process to help them understand Federal financial aid programs, scholarship and other grant opportunities
• Advise students regarding financial aid letters and the Federal verification processes
• Own the outcomes of these conversations as key to the students’ paths forward as well as a critical component to Guild’s long term success
• Accurately manage student billing and account information in Salesforce and other digital technology tools
• Motivate every single possible student to move quickly to complete the required steps
• Expertly navigate our internal contact strategy to communicate with students whether by phone, email or text or other communication channels
• Develop and improve your consultative conversation approaches through feedback and call coaching, training programs, and collaboration with team members
• Work with various other Guild teams every day, ensuring they have up to date information on all students and that transition processes across teams are smooth
• Support innovation, process improvement and positive change in the student experience and student billing processes
• Develop relationships with scholarship providers and resources to collect and maintain accurate database information for available scholarship programs across the United States

We hope you have:

• Demonstrated ability to build relationships and trust with others quickly on the phone and via email or text
• Comfort with complex financial conversations and student financial aid processes and ability to persuade a customer (student) to take action to apply for financial aid through Federal and other programs, and follow through on financial planning and actions
• A data-driven mindset and the ability to use insights from qualitative conversations and quantitative metrics to build stronger relationships and achieve better results
• Experience in a higher education environment, preferably in Financial Aid, Registrar, Business Office or Accounting
• A willingness and self-driven motivation to step outside your role and contribute to projects and initiatives in our fast-growing startup environment
• Resilience, openness and an ability to positively respond and adapt to frequent change
• Ability to successfully accomplish goals driven by lead flow as part of a high-performing, metrics-driven team
• A belief in our mission - this role is compensated on base pay, not incentive bonuses
• Great attention to detail, and a highly-organized approach to your daily work, making sure data is entered and accurate, the many components of a completed Admissions Application and Student Account information are tracked and collected, and everyone on the student’s enrollment team is kept up to date on the student’s progress
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• A bias to action and sense of urgency as well as a persuasive ability to motivate action in others
• Experience with Salesforce or a similar CRM

Guild Education believes that a diverse and inclusive team will contribute toward our ability to achieve our mission and will dedicate intentional effort to building a team that reflects that belief.