Career Planner

Career Planner

Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) is seeking a Career Planner to join our team at the Iowa WORKS office in Mason City, Iowa.

Position Details

• Location: 600 S Pierce Ave., Mason City, IA
• Schedule: Full-time | Monday – Friday | 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
• Work Flexibility: Hybrid telework and alternate schedules available after six months of employment

What You'll Do

Provide customer-focused services, assessing needs, and delivering career guidance. Coach job seekers, assisting with resumes and interviews, connecting customers to workshops and employment opportunities, performing job matching, and documenting services in the database system. Support employers with recruitment and job orders while maintaining employer relationships. Assist unemployment claimants with re-employment activities and follows unemployment administration rules and Iowa law when addressing unemployment insurance claims and appeals.

Core Responsibilities

Customer Service and Team Collaboration

• Provide courtesy, respect, and politeness during all interactions with customers, both internal and external.
• Work with and ask customers appropriate questions to determine services they are seeking and/or needing.
• Interact effectively and build respectful relationships among coworkers and partners.
• Collaborate with team members within the American Job Center (AJC), resulting in a better experience for customers.
• Provide feedback as well as potential solutions to team and/or leadership and provide first day service to Veterans.
• Promptly greet customers upon entry into the Iowa WORKS Center in a friendly and professional manner.

Career Coaching and Customer Support

• Coach, motivate, and encourage job seekers on all aspects of the job search and assist customers to build their personal and job skills for the primary goal of successful employment.
• Provide customers assistance with preparing and tailoring resumes and cover letters and facilitate mock interviews for customers, identifying ways to improve their interview responses.
• Process paperwork for partner and team programs and services.
• Refer, direct, and result customers to appropriate workshops and employment events.
• Facilitate workshops or one-on-one appointments in-person or through virtual conferencing platform for customers/participants of system programs and services, update workshops and presentations as new information is available.
• Accurately document all services, appointments, or other pertinent information in the database system and send/receive work-related documents for customers.

Employment Services and Labor Market Guidance

• Assist customers by answering questions about employment and training opportunities.
• Perform "job matching" referring career opportunities to candidates in the Iowa WORKS System.
• Provide appropriate partner referrals and relay current labor market information to job candidates.

Business Services and Employer Engagement

• Participate in development and implementation of hiring events in office and out in the community.
• Work with Business Engagement Consultant (BEC) in reaching out to employers for labor exchange services.
• Assist with employer Iowa WORKS account access.
• Attend in partnership with BEC, employer outreach events to market Iowa WORKS center services.

Unemployment Insurance and Re-employment Support

• Connect unemployment claimants with re-employment activities at the AJC.
• Adhere and refer to unemployment administration rules and Iowa law when working with customers regarding filing unemployment insurance (UI) claims, answering questions and concerns.
• Use database system to review salary histories, cross reference database systems to ensure personal identification information matches and adjudicate issues within the claim in accordance with all UI laws.
• Provide information to customers for UI appeals when necessary and prepare and participate in all UI appeal hearings relating to issued adjudications decisions.

About Iowa Workforce Development

IWD is a state agency committed to providing employment services for individual job seekers and to connecting employers to available workers through our Iowa WORKS partnership.

IWD continually strives to improve processes and align the organization to provide effective, demand-driven products and services. IWD staff in Des Moines consists of administrative services, disability determination services, information technology, labor market information, unemployment insurance services, vocational rehabilitation services, and workforce services. The agency also maintains a statewide delivery system for Iowa WORKS Offices where both employers and job seekers can receive workforce assistance.

Employer Highlights

IWD is focused on serving Iowans and providing outstanding customer service. Our strength is driven by the skills and talents of our people. IWD offers a rewarding team atmosphere, a flexible working environment, and a great total compensation package for our full-time employees, including:

• Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System (IPERS)
• Retirement Investors Club (RIC)
• Hybrid telework opportunities for eligible classifications
• Health, Dental and Vision Insurance
• Vacation Leave
• Sick Leave
• Paid Holidays (9 days/year)
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Life Insurance
• Long-Term Disability Insurance

If you're looking for a career with a well-respected organization that values its employees and customers, you've come to the right place!

The State of Iowa participates in E-Verify; a federal program that helps employers confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. Within the required timeframe, new hires will be verified through the E-Verify system to ensure authorization to work in the United States. The State of Iowa also complies with the federal Right to Work laws, which protect employees' rights to work without being required to join a labor organization. For more information, please visit

No applicant seeking employment with the Iowa Department of Workforce Development can have a current, ongoing overpayment balance with Iowa Workforce Development without a payment plan in place. Select positions will be subject to a criminal background check.

Minimum Qualification Requirements

Applicants must meet at least one of the following minimum requirements to qualify for positions in this job classification:

1. Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with a degree in any field.
2. Four years of full-time work experience in career services, teaching or training to improve skills, job coaching, providing human services to individuals in need, sales, customer service, call center operations, or human-resources-related services involving interviewing, reviewing job applications, conducting employment-related assessments, or job placement.
3. A total of four years of education and/or full-time experience (as described in number two), where thirty semester hours of accredited college or university coursework in any field equals one year of full-time experience.
4. Current, continuous experience in the state executive branch that includes twelve months of full-time work as a Workforce Associate.