“The best part of campus recruitment is handling hundreds of paper resumes, spending endless hours scheduling and rescheduling interviews, and working with data in spreadsheets for days on end,” said no recruiter…ever!

Thanks to the disruption caused by evolving technology, campus recruiters are reaping a variety of rewards related to their career – and none have to do with busy work. Manual, labor-intensive administrative tasks are becoming a thing of the past, freeing up campus recruitment professionals to use more creative, strategy and people skills that make their role more rewarding and impactful to their business and the candidates they work with.

We asked some of today’s top recruiters what’s most rewarding about their working campus recruitment. Here’s what they had to say:

Recruiter Reward #1: Being A Strategic Business Partner

“I get to help leaders reimagine what the future of work will look like for their businesses and then show them how early talent can bring them new skillsets and ideas. It’s kind of like a psychologist.”
– Jylian, Head of Inclusive and Campus Recruitment Programs, Packaged Foods Company

Recruiter Reward #2: Giving Someone Their First Job

“The ability to give candidates, especially entry level students, their first job. From there, that’s the base they take forward with them for the rest of their career and they always think of our company as their first landing spot.”
– Bridget, National Talent Acquisition Administrator, Global Accounting Network

Recruiter Reward #3: Helping Students Find Their Careers

“What inspires me most about my work…what gets me up in the morning, especially on rainy, crazy days, is the opportunity to be a career match-maker. There’s nothing like talking to a sophomore or junior in college, connecting them with an internship or connecting them to a career that maybe they had no idea about.”
– Laneisha, University Relations Manager, Electronic Company

Recruiter Reward #4: Connecting With and Advocating For Candidates

“I am a grad hire myself and I am so fortunate to have been able to move from a small town in Georgia to working for a fin-tech firm in New York City. [I am inspired by[HM-S1] ] being able to connect with candidates and hear their stories and advocate for people who I think deserve a similar opportunity.”
– Brooke, Junior Recruiter, Financial Technology Company

Future Forecast: Campus Recruiting Rewards And Opportunities Look Bright

Campus recruiters can expect to continue reaping a variety of professional rewards. Business leaders increasingly identify the global talent shortage as one of the biggest risks companies face – even beyond the economy and privacy issues. This center-stage focus in the C-suite positions Human Resources (HR) and recruiting professionals to play a more strategic, creative and collaborative role in business planning for years to come.

At the same time, Gen Zers place increasing emphasis on their relationships with recruiters. In fact, according to the 2019 Yello Recruiting Survey, their relationship with a recruiter – not money, benefits or career opportunities – is the biggest factor Zers consider when deciding whether to take a job.   

On the technology front, recruiting solutions are moving beyond automating non-value-added activities to using artificial intelligence to screen candidates and digitalization to reach, engage and retain the right talent with the right skills for the right job.