💡 Look for: Genuine connection to education and student success — not just "I needed a job." The best candidates feel a sense of purpose in supporting academic milestones that change students' lives.

💡 Look for: Genuine empathy and cultural awareness. Graduate students at UK come from all over the world. This person will interact with international students and diverse populations regularly.

💡 Look for: Honest self-awareness. This is a structured, Monday–Friday 8–5 role with defined processes. Candidates who thrive on routine and predictability will do better here than those who crave constant novelty.

💡 Look for: Values that align with your office culture — reliability, communication, mutual respect, shared purpose. This also reveals whether they'll contribute positively to team dynamics.

💡 Look for: Understanding of privacy (FERPA awareness is a bonus), discretion, and professional maturity. This is non-negotiable for the Registrar environment.

💡 Look for: A candidate who understands that behind every file is a real person working toward a degree milestone. The best answer connects their work to meaning — not just process.

💡 Look for: Genuine self-improvement — not a rehearsed non-answer. Online courses, asking a mentor, reading, practicing. Shows initiative and willingness to grow beyond current comfort zones.

💡 Look for: Emotional maturity and coachability. The ideal answer shows they processed the feedback, reflected on it honestly, and actually changed their behavior rather than getting defensive.

💡 Look for: Proactive learning habits — attending training, reading policy updates, asking questions, connecting with colleagues. Shows they won't fall behind when systems or regulations change.

💡 Look for: Honest self-assessment and a constructive plan. Candidates who pretend to be perfect at everything are less trustworthy than those who acknowledge gaps and show a strategy for closing them.

💡 Look for: A spirit of contribution and going above the minimum. This role will sometimes require adapting to shifting priorities; someone with initiative will be a much stronger asset.

💡 Look for: Alignment between their ambitions and what this role offers. Not everyone needs to want to be a director — but they should want to grow within higher ed or student affairs in a way that makes sense.

💡 Look for: Connection to purpose beyond just completing tasks. If they talk about helping students, contributing to a team, or mastering a complex process, those are strong signs of engagement and retention.

💡 Look for: Research and genuine interest — did they look into UK's mission, values, or culture? Generic answers ("good benefits") are red flags; specific answers about the university's reputation or community are positive signals.

💡 Look for: Intellectual curiosity and broader career thinking. Doesn't need to be perfectly aligned, but showing interest in the wider field signals someone who will invest in their work and grow with the institution.

💡 Look for: Realistic, grounded expectations — learning the systems, building relationships, understanding workflows. Overly ambitious 90-day plans can signal poor self-awareness; this is a complex role that takes time to master.

💡 Look for: Accountability without deflection. The best answers own the mistake, explain how they addressed it, and describe what they changed. Anyone who can't name a real mistake may lack self-awareness.

💡 Look for: Calm de-escalation, empathy, and professionalism. Graduate students can be high-stress during exam periods or near graduation. This person will be a front-line point of contact.

💡 Look for: Courage to speak up, combined with tact. Did they just fix it quietly, flag it to leadership, document it? The answer reveals both their integrity and their judgment about when to escalate.

💡 Look for: Healthy coping strategies and self-awareness about their own stress responses. The Registrar office has peak crunch periods (end of semester, graduation season). Resilience under pressure is critical.

💡 Look for: Confidence in policy while maintaining empathy. This role must apply degree requirements and committee rules even when students or faculty resist. They need to hold firm with kindness and clarity.

💡 Look for: Calm, step-by-step problem solving — verify the situation, check the system, communicate with the student and their director of graduate studies, escalate if needed. Bonus: mentions timeline urgency awareness.

💡 Look for: Prompt, clear communication to the student and faculty advisor. Judgment about what can realistically be corrected in time versus what requires a delay. Professionalism in delivering unwelcome news.

💡 Look for: Diplomatic but firm adherence to policy, with openness to escalating to a supervisor if needed. This is a real dynamic in academic settings where faculty sometimes challenge administrative rules.

💡 Look for: Transparent communication, asking about deadlines, willingness to help balanced with responsibility for their own work. Prioritization frameworks (urgency vs. importance) are a great sign.

💡 Look for: Immediate escalation to supervisor, honest communication, corrective action plan. This tests integrity and crisis response. No one should try to quietly bury this — how they handle it says everything about their character.

💡 Look for: Audience awareness — simpler, reassuring language for distressed students; professional and precise with faculty; formal and structured with administrators. This person bridges all three regularly.

💡 Look for: Plain language, analogies, patience, and checking for understanding. Graduate students new to the US or to doctoral requirements may be completely lost — this person has to translate bureaucracy into clarity.

💡 Look for: Clear, respectful, solution-oriented writing. A writing sample was requested in the posting — you might ask if they brought one or ask them to write a sample on the spot. Email quality matters significantly.

💡 Look for: Honest reflection on their own role in the breakdown, and a constructive lesson. Nobody gets communication right 100% of the time — but self-awareness about it matters enormously in this role.

💡 Look for: Honesty, a commitment to finding the right answer, and appropriate follow-through ("I'll find out and get back to you by end of day"). Never bluffing or guessing — accuracy is paramount in student records.