Career Journeys - Introduction

Who is included in Career Journeys:

• UVA Academic Division University and Wage Staff

• University Medical Center Staff including Wage

• UVA College at Wise University and Wage Staff

Who Is Not Included in Career Journeys:

• Classified Staff

• Temporary employees

• Faculty 

• Professional Research Staff

• Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs)

• Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) 

• Student workers

• Residents and House Staff

• UVA Physicians Group

• UVA Community Health

• Organize every position at UVA from included groups into a clear and consistent job category

• Provide transparency into all job titles, descriptions, and required credentials

• Help employees understand their current role and how it fits within the University

• Help employees highlight potential career paths within their field and across other areas of interest

• Support employees in preparing for future opportunities at UVA

Through the searchable Job Directory that will allow you to explore jobs across the University by filtering one or more job classification categories. The Directory will help you see the full range of positions that exist at UVA and where they fit within the broader job architecture. See the Career Journeys Job Directory webpage for more information.  

No. Career Journeys does not eliminate any jobs. Its purpose is to provide clarity, support growth, and strengthen career development across the University.

No, your business title does not change.

Your business title is the name you and your department use day to day—it's flexible, reflects your specific responsibilities, and is used in places like email signatures, directories, and communications (e.g., Events Coordinator, School of Medicine or Senior Lab Manager, Neuroscience Department).

What will change is that Career Journeys will create a standardized Job Profile for your role, placing it within a broader, University-wide job architecture.

This Job Profile defines the core functions, general responsibilities, and typical qualifications of your position in a consistent way across UVA (e.g., Program Coordinator I or Research Manager II). While your business title remains the same, the Job Profile helps clarify how your role fits into the larger structure of the University and supports career planning, development, and internal equity.

No. Career Journeys does not change the actual duties of your job. It provides clearer job profiles and descriptions to help you better understand your role and explore career path opportunities based on the work you're already doing.

Keep in mind that individual departments or units may maintain more specific job descriptions that reflect the unique responsibilities of your position within that team.

No. Career Journeys does not change employee pay. It is focused on job clarity, career development, and internal mobility—not compensation.

No. Career Journeys does not change your manager or reporting structure.

The process for promotion remains the same, meaning that a staff member still need to apply for the posted position and have the requisite skills. The enhancement that Career Journeys brings is increased transparency on what posted jobs are in an employee’s career path, and visibility into what is a promotional opportunity in their current career path.  For example, an employee will see the Career Journeys information included in every posted position so that they can identify higher level positions than their current level (see Career Stream and Level information below in Job Framework), or they could choose pursue a position in the management stream.   

A Job Profile is essentially a complete job description that combines four key elements to create a specific position at the university:

What it is in simple terms: Think of it like a mailing address for jobs. Just as your home address has a state, city, street, and house number to pinpoint exactly where you live, a Job Profile uses these four components to pinpoint exactly what a job entails:

• Job Family Group = The broad professional field (like "Information Technology")
• Job Family = The specialty within that field (like "Database Administration")
• Career Stream = The type of role (like "Professional")
• Level = The duties/complexity (like "Level 2")

Why it's important: This system creates consistency across the entire university. Instead of having hundreds of randomly named job titles, every position fits into this organized framework. This means employees can easily understand where they fit in the organization and what skills are valued.

How it helps with career paths: The structure acts like a career roadmap. Employees can see:

• Horizontal moves: Switch to different Job Families within the same group
• Vertical moves: Advance to higher Levels within their current specialty
• Diagonal moves: Combine specialty changes with level advancement

This clarity helps people plan their professional development, understand what skills they need to advance, and identify realistic next steps in their university career. It takes the guesswork out of career progression.

Each staff member's job profile will be available at launch on September 15. 

Levels reflect the typical knowledge, skills, and experience needed for roles at that stage. Within a career stream, several different jobs may share the same level, and not every level will always have an active position in every stream.

The differences between career levels are determined based on the scope/complexity of the position. Specifically, this means the jobs within a job family will differ in level based on duty and responsibility differences between profiles.  Factors include the nature and scope of influence, the level of autonomy the position has to make decisions at various levels of impact, the nature of communication and audience, supervisory responsibilities and number/type of teams, and the level of expertise needed to fulfill position responsibilities. 

For example, a job profile could be classified as Information Technology → Database Administration → Professional → Level 2 demonstrates how these four attributes work together.