AO-at-desk

Background

Admissions Officers at Merriam Music provide a valuable and critical service to our customers: helping to communicate what makes us so different from other schools. WIth the vast majority of music schools throughout North America, there is very little attention paid to helping parents choose the right path for their children, let alone an entire team of people.  Our unparalleled focus on the student experience, ensuring that every Merriam Music member is paired with the correct programs, teachers, and extracurricular activities, allows us to deliver the gift of ‘music for life’ to thousands of people year after year.  As an Admissions Officer, your role is to:

  • share and teach the philosophy of the school
  • educate parents and mature students on what programs are available and which ones might be appropriate
  • help them to understand the value of the full range of out-of-classroom (extracurricular) activities
  • monitor their experience throughout their time here at Merriam

Roles & Responsibilities

Our Admissions Officers are full-time employees who work at one of our two locations: Oakville & Vaughan. Every one of our advisors works in their own professional desk area, and new prospective families connect with us either by website, phone, or email.  We enjoy working with our Admissions Officers on special events, ideas on how to attract new students, and new and improved ways on how to communicate the school experience.

  • 8 hour shifts
  • 5 days / week
  • Some evening & weekend hours are required
  • Work with a team leader, as well as an overall sales manager
  • Available at our Oakville and Vaughan Ontario locations
  • Interacting with 5 to 20 families daily on either prospective or existing lesson issues

Future Opportunities

Admissions Officers enjoy a great deal of influence over their level of pay.  As our team members get more successful in placing students in the school, their earning potential also increases, plus there is an opportunity to advance to either a Team Leader position, as well as add other responsibilities such as marketing or instrument sales.  The majority of our Admissions Officers earn more than similarly qualified sales people in other companies.

A Discussion With Sarah Merriam Manager of School Admissions

Q: How long have you been involved with the family business?

A: In short, basically most of my life. Just like my siblings did, I grew up here at the school, taking music lessons and helping with various roles, and along the way being mentored by many of the same teachers that I now have the honour of calling ‘colleagues’. I’ve certainly seen Merriam Music from every side – a student, a teacher, a staff member – and it’s a great source of pride that I can help create the next generation of mentors here.

Q: What makes the team at Merriam unique to work with?

A: 100% it’s the value we actually bring to people’s lives. We’re not selling refrigerators or shoes, we are playing a direct role in forming young people, or fulfilling an adult’s dream to learn music. I’ve literally seen shy, insecure 5 year olds grow into outgoing, confident leaders in the space of a few short years. As we often say, students come here for music, but they learn a lot more than that along the way.

So when you come to work and you know that people’s experience is that profound and life changing, it gives so much more meaning to your daily work. It also makes it very easy to convince people to give us a try – at the end of the day, all we really do is tell people what goes on here, and the rest takes care of itself.

Q: What makes a successful admissions candidate at Merriam Music?

A: I would say someone who is part internally competitive, part highly empathetic, and bonus points if you have a musical background. Some of our best candidates have had no sales experience whatsoever, but they are excellent speakers who understand how to connect with people and quickly understand their needs and preferences.

I say competitive because music education is a crowded industry, with lots of chain-store music schools trying to sign up students as fast as possible; if we want to give those students a chance here at Merriam, we need to make sure that parents hear from us before making a decision, and that can take drive and organization to handle the volume of communications.

 

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