A Day In The Life Of An On-Campus Recruiter Of The Future
June 19, 2019

A Day In The Life Of An On-Campus Recruiter Of The Future

Alex Csedrik

What will a day in the life of an on-campus recruiter of the future look like? Once they wake up and fall out of bed, what will they do next? Here’s a closer look at how they will spend their time compared to what current recruiters are doing.

CURRENT—8AM—Meet In The Hotel Lobby And Leave For Campus

You grab a stale pastry, drink pulpy orange juice, and hop in your rental car.

FUTURE—8AM—Eat Breakfast And Leave For The Office

You go to a place that blends fruits and vegetables into liquid form for quick and easy consumption. The store calls the drink a blendie. You suggest to the worker they call the drink a smoothie.

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CURRENT—8:20AM—Arrive On Campus

You make it on campus—with a few minutes to spare—so you can prepare.

FUTURE—8:20AM—Arrive At The Office

You walk into work. You go over to the water cooler to talk about Big Little Lies. You get a cup of coffee, go back to your desk, check social media—the Kardashians are trending again! (yawn)—and read your emails.

CURRENT—8:30AM-12:00PM—Interview Round

You conduct interviews with qualified candidates that you scheduled prior to your arrival. During this time, though, other students who may not be a fit wander over to your booth, so you talk to them. This reduces your time with qualified candidates.

FUTURE—8:30AM-9:30AM—Analyze Source Effectiveness

You do a deep dive at where your past qualified candidates came from. You notice an interesting trend—a lot of your core schools aren’t delivering the top talent you thought they were, especially not at your target cost-per-hire. Your cost-per-hire, in fact, is well above the average $6,275, per the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). You tell your boss. You brainstorm how to be more efficient on campus and drive more qualified candidates.

You plan which upcoming events you’re attending at which institutions. You choose to attend diversity career fairs to hit your diversity hiring goals. You avoid the scattershot approach of the past, where you attended as many career fairs as possible. Only 53 percent of Gen Z attends career fairs, after all, and you’ve found your more strategic approach is much more effective.

FUTURE—9:30AM-12:00PM—First Batch Of Interviews With Qualified Candidates

You interview pre-screened, qualified candidates. These candidates use a high-tech tool to conveniently schedule their interviews at times that work best for you and them, helping create a positive candidate experience.

You get to know the candidates more, and you understand their strengths and weaknesses. You get a better idea of who would excel at your company.

on-campus recruiter

CURRENT—12:00PM-1:30PM—Information Session

You showcase your company’s employer brand. You speak until your voice is hoarse. A few potential applicants show slight interest.

FUTURE—12:00PM-12:30PM—Lunch

Your company has digitally crafted a strong employer brand, so it consistently gets high-intent applicants. You don’t have to give dozens of company culture presentations, so your voice no longer sounds like Fran Drescher’s.

FUTURE—12:30PM-5:30PM—More Interviews With Qualified Candidates

You have more qualified candidates to interview. You get to spend your day with only qualified candidates: That must be out of The Twilight Zone!    

CURRENT—1:30PM-2:30PM—Meet With Career Services

You meet with Career Services. You discuss timelines, updates, and other happenings at your company. You ask Career Services what students think of your company.

CURRENT—2:30PM-5:30PM—Coffee Chats With Students

on-campus recruiter

For the next three hours, you have coffee chats with students. A few of the students you speak to may be a good fit for your company.  

FUTURE—5:30PM—Answer Emails And Wrap Up For The Day

Make sure there’s nothing urgent you have to deal with. You talk about how you love to hate Meryl Streep’s character in Big Little Lies. You head home for the day.

CURRENT—5:30PM—Answer Emails And Regroup

You get some downtime, but you’re still on the clock. You answer emails and write notes from the morning activities. These can range from recapping interviews to writing notes—that you’ll most likely lose—for next year’s agenda.

FUTURE—6:00PM-Rest Of The Night—Unwind

You eat dinner and relax.  

CURRENT—7:00PM—Prepare For The Evening Session

Now it’s time to rinse and repeat, and get ready for the evening information session.

CURRENT—7:30PM-8:30PM—Evening Information Session

You present to students, just like you did in the afternoon. Not all of them are qualified. Most stare at their phone throughout your presentation.

CURRENT—8:30PM-9:30PM—Individual Q & A

You answer student questions that come up during one-on-one sessions. Most of the questions are about the company perks. You repeatedly answer that your company doesn’t have a beer pong table in the office.  

CURRENT—9:30PM-10:00PM—Leave Campus And Head Back To Your Hotel

CURRENT—10:00PM-11:00PM—Catch Up

on-campus recruiter

When you get back to your hotel, you review emails and tomorrow’s agenda. You get to do this again the next day…and the next…for 10 months of the year.

As you can see, your current on-campus recruiters are forced to be tactical throughout their day. The on-campus recruiter of the future, however, gets to be strategic about how they spend their time on campus, and they spend double the time each day with qualified candidates. But here’s the thing: The on-campus recruiter of the future can be your company’s present recruiter. Look at Nasdaq—they partnered with WayUp and saved their team 100 hours of work per week and cut their time-to-hire in half. So, if you want a more efficient on-campus recruiter who spends more time with qualified candidates, then your company should do the same.

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