A day in the life of a Campus Recruiter

The campus season is drawing towards its end, and although this means the end of early mornings, late nights, never ending calls and immense pressure, I can’t help but feel a little sad. The energy, the adrenaline, making 100 offers a week at times, the glimmer in the eye of a student attending the pre-placement talk, to the tears after finding out that they have got a job in their dream company. Its priceless. It fuels me to no limit. As I look back at the campus season ’21, I thought it would be nice to tell you about a day in the life of a campus recruiter.

8:00 AM:?Wake up, no matter how late you have worked the previous night. Remind yourself with half open eyes, you are the bridge between a confused, self-doubting 20-year-old and their dream job, and you can help them as they take their first step into a fulfilling career. Smile at that thought and prepare yourself for the rest of the day.

9:00 AM: Ready, set, show time! Pre-Placement talks are when the recruiters present the opportunity that we are bringing to the campus. This is no less than a sales pitch, but the product is the organization. How would you hook the students? Will it be the compensation? The brand name? The learning opportunities?

I always put myself in the shoes of the students, what would interest me? And it’s always the culture – the leadership support, the networking opportunities, growth prospects, autonomy. This is also the time we get to really hear the students for the first time. Questions on work life balance, inclusion, and incorporation of latest technologies are student favorites, and hence it becomes important to make it a part of your pitch.

10:00 AM: You’re energized now, and you hope the students match your energy. You take a quick glance through their resumes and try to contain your excitement to interact with them. What a way to live right? Getting to know 30 odd new people every day. Their dreams, their aspirations, their strengths, their individual journeys. Most times, interviews end up being conversations where you could go on for the rest of the day. But alas! You have 15 minutes to decide, if the candidate would be a good fit for the role, and – if your role is in alignment with their career aspirations. It’s a skill you learn with time, and you can never be sure enough.

1:00 PM: Interviews are running parallelly, and although you’d love to spend the rest of the day interacting with deeply skilled and passionate graduates, you need to get back to your job. What is the latest problem we are solving? What are the new colleges that have now been listed on NIRF? Do you need to relook at your campus strategy, now that there are more techno-functional courses being laid out by colleges? Do you need to develop a new hiring model, that caters to the ever-evolving skill mix required in your organization? Is off-campus the new on-campus? Is our hiring strategy truly inclusive, and are we able to offer the same opportunity to a diverse candidate pool? Are we widening our talent pool, or narrowing it down through the age-old tiering system? Do you need to help the campuses in skill building, or probably run a workshop to tell the students more about our roles? Are we leveraging enough technology to make our recruitment process efficient?

3:00 PM:?So much scope, such less time. The campus hiring landscape is driven by students. There is a huge amount of data that ascertains that the students are demanding more from their campuses, as well as prospective organizations. Every year, you experience a shift in student expectations, and it is so important to align your strategy accordingly. When your target audience is so informed, well read, and networked, it doesn’t take too long to be left behind the curve.

You worry about making it to the renewed lists of attractive employers, to be the organization colleges would offer day 0 slots to, but you decide that all you can do at this point, is ensure you get the right candidate through the doors.

4:00 PM: You get together with the panelists and debrief on the day that has been. You already know how many offers you can make in this campus, and although you might have been impressed with the whole lot of them, there are only a select few that will make the cut. The decision is being made. Remember the sales pitch that you made? Now is the time you decide if this can be the beginning of a mutually beneficial, value adding relationship between the candidate and the organization.

5:00 PM: You connect with your teammates, because although you have had a roller coaster of a day, there are 4-5 simultaneous campus hiring events, when your colleagues are also moving through the same steps of excitement, nervousness, fear, and satisfaction. You hope that everyone has made it out safe and sane!

6:00 PM: Onto the most wholesome part of the day! You have your selects, and it is now the time to announce results.?You invite all the selected candidates to the call. You can see their nervousness dripping away with sweat. You ask them to have a sip of water. They have had a long day, just like you. You give them a moment, and then you tell them that they have made it! They have successfully navigated through the 3-4 years of college, honed their skills, transformed themselves, and it leads to a fruitful end with a job offer from a dream company. It’s an enigmatic feeling, the satisfaction that you see on their faces, the relief expressing itself through tears. They cry, they smile, they hug their parents, its priceless. You see your tiredness washing away with those happy faces. You are proud of yourself because this makes everything worth it.

7:00 PM: Your heart is happy, but the day is far from its end. You get to documentation, capturing feedback, closing emails – to ensure that you comply to the processes, and there is no miss. It is so important to be careful, any mistake could hamper the prospective future of the candidate. You’re craving your bed, but you do it anyway.

8:00 PM: You prepare for the following day, because campus season is a whirlwind spread across 3-4 months. You compartmentalize the day that has been and ensure everything is scheduled accurately for the next day. What interesting students are you going to meet tomorrow? Are they future designers? Lawyers? Social media managers? Content designers? Researchers? Accountants? Would they go on to become a future leader? The prospects are endless!

You realize you’re hungry, did you forget to have your lunch again? You’re sure you had 2 cups of coffee at least. You know it’s time to step away from your virtual work desk.

10:00 PM: You get to bed. You remember the smiles of the selected candidates, but you do pain for the candidates who did not make it. Would they be upset? Sure, they will. You hope that there are better opportunities in store for them. You drop a prayer for them, as you peacefully doze off.