How Do Corporate Recruiters Select Which Schools to Visit?

Survey findings reveal the factors recruiters consider most important in deciding which campuses to target.

Aug 10, 2017

Employment Outlook

Business school alumna

For companies around the world, recruiting on graduate business school campuses for their next batch of hires is a tried and true method of attracting top talent. According to the results of the 2017 Corporate Recruiters Survey, which collected responses from more than 600 companies worldwide, nearly 9 in 10 respondents (87%) report that they work directly with universities to recruit graduate business students. That’s a larger share of companies that recruit new talent through job posts on their company websites (81%), employee referrals (81%), recruitment fairs (60%), and job websites such as Monster or Indeed (51%). The question is: How do recruiters select which schools they will visit, and is there anything school professionals can do to attract them?

As a part of the 2016 Corporate Recruiters Survey, GMAC asked recruiters to indicate the factors that their company consider most important when selecting schools from which to recruit recent graduate business school students. Not surprisingly, the top factor identified by recruiters is the quality of the students (69% of respondents), followed by reputation of the school (45%), and past experience at the school (41%). Also ranking highly is personal relationships with school faculty or the career services office—identified as an important factor by 38 percent of respondents. This finding should be encouraging to career services professionals who work hard at building these personal relationships with employers in order to give their students the opportunity to connect with these employers on their campus. 

What brings employers to campus?

For more information on MBA and business master’s hiring, compensation, and employer recruitment strategies, download the 2017 Corporate Recruiters Survey Report at gmac.com/corporaterecruiters.