Residential Advisor Coordinate activities in resident facilities in secondary school and college dormitories, group homes, or similar establishments. Order supplies and determine need for maintenance, repairs, and furnishings. May maintain household records and assign rooms. May assist residents with problem solving or refer them to counseling resources.
Residential Advisor is Also Know as
In different settings, Residential Advisor is titled as
- Hall Coordinator
- Residence Director
- Residence Hall Director
- Residence Life Coordinator
- Residence Life Director
- Resident Advisor
- Resident Assistant
- Resident Director
- Residential Coordinator
- Residential Life Director
Education and Training of Residential Advisor
Residential Advisor is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Residential Advisor
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Residential Advisor
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Residential Advisor
- Bachelor in College Student Counseling and Personnel Services
- Associate Degree Courses in College Student Counseling and Personnel Services
- Masters Degree Courses in College Student Counseling and Personnel Services
- Bachelor in Student Counseling and Personnel Services, Other
- Associate Degree Courses in Student Counseling and Personnel Services, Other
- Masters Degree Courses in Student Counseling and Personnel Services, Other
Training Required for Residential Advisor
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Residential Advisor in different industries are
- Social and Community Service Managers
- Rehabilitation Counselors
- First-Line Supervisors of Personal Service Workers
- Child, Family, and School Social Workers
- Social and Human Service Assistants
- First-Line Supervisors of Entertainment and Recreation Workers, Except Gambling Services
- Recreation Workers
- Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
- Patient Representatives
- First-Line Supervisors of Housekeeping and Janitorial Workers
- Home Health Aides
- Personal Care Aides
- Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary
- Education Administrators, Postsecondary
- Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare
- Directors, Religious Activities and Education
- Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs
- Health Education Specialists
- Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers
- Mental Health Counselors
What Do Residential Advisor do?
- Enforce rules and regulations to ensure the smooth and orderly operation of dormitory programs.
- Provide emergency first aid and summon medical assistance when necessary.
- Mediate interpersonal problems between residents.
- Administer, coordinate, or recommend disciplinary and corrective actions.
- Communicate with other staff to resolve problems with individual students.
- Counsel students in the handling of issues such as family, financial, and educational problems.
- Make regular rounds to ensure that residents and areas are safe and secure.
- Observe students to detect and report unusual behavior.
- Determine the need for facility maintenance and repair, and notify appropriate personnel.
- Collaborate with counselors to develop counseling programs that address the needs of individual students.
- Develop program plans for individuals or assist in plan development.
- Hold regular meetings with each assigned unit.
- Direct and participate in on- and off-campus recreational activities for residents of institutions, boarding schools, fraternities or sororities, children's homes, or similar establishments.
- Assign rooms to students.
- Provide requested information on students' progress and the development of case plans.
- Confer with medical personnel to better understand the backgrounds and needs of individual residents.
- Answer telephones, and route calls or deliver messages.
- Process contract cancellations for students who are unable to follow residence hall policies and procedures.
- Sort and distribute mail.
- Supervise the activities of housekeeping personnel.
- Order supplies for facilities.
- Supervise students' housekeeping work to ensure that it is done properly.
- Chaperone group-sponsored trips and social functions.
- Compile information such as residents' daily activities and the quantities of supplies used to prepare required reports.
- Accompany and supervise students during meals.
- Provide transportation or escort for expeditions, such as shopping trips or visits to doctors or dentists.
- Inventory, pack, and remove items left behind by former residents.
- Develop and coordinate educational programs for residents.
- Supervise, train, and evaluate residence hall staff, including resident assistants, participants in work-study programs, and other student workers.
- Oversee departmental budget.
Qualities of Good Residential Advisor
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Information Ordering: The 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).
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Residential Advisor
- 10-key calculators
- Automated lock systems
- Cash drawers
- Compost bins
- Computer data input scanners
- Computer inkjet printers
- Copy machines
- Desktop computers
- Emergency first aid kits
- First aid ice packs
- Laptop computers
- Laser facsimile machines
- Multiline telephone systems
- Passenger vans
- Portable fire extinguishers
- Smart phones
- Smoke detectors
- Staple guns
- Telephone answering machines
- Video game consoles
- Wet-dry vacuums
- Whiteboards
Technology Skills required for Residential Advisor
- Budgeting software
- Email software
- Google Docs
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Survey software
- Web browser software
- Website development software
- Word processing software