The Future of Business School Recruitment

• Employers are assessing more graduates from more schools, which in turn is making recruitment more complex.
• There are signs that traditional measures of a candidate’s ability to succeed—such as their alma mater and GPA—are becoming less important to employers.
• Instead, companies are taking a wider range of factors into account when hiring, with skills like emotional intelligence and adaptability seen as more important than before.

 
The recruitment process has changed dramatically over the last few decades. But it’s not stopping there. In another 10 years’ time, the way firms recruit from business schools could be unrecognizable even from today.

As a result, schools, students, and employers all need to adapt their approaches to make sure that the right candidates reach the right companies.

From a lower regard for GPAs to a reduced reliance on rankings, here are five ways that business school recruitment could change in the upcoming years.

1. Recruiters Are Casting a Wider Net

Once upon a time, on-campus recruitment events were an unshakeable part of business school life. It was almost impossible to hire or be hired without attending one of these events.

Now, however, things are different. “Technology has changed the process,” explains Jonathan Adams, director of career programs at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business in Virginia. “It has made recruitment so much easier and more cost-effective, broadening the range of students from different universities that can access recruitment events.”

This digital-first approach is enabling employers to cast a wider net and move away from a list of preferred schools, which would often disproportionately feature “elite” universities. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean top schools will be cast aside by recruiters or students in the future.

"Many organizations want access to broader and more diverse talent pools that bring different educational backgrounds, perspectives, and approaches to problem-solving.”—Michael S. Ryan

“Employers are not necessarily abandoning top-ranked programs—they are expanding their pipelines,” says Michael S. Ryan, senior director of employer and alumni career engagement at the College of William and Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business.

“That said, there isn’t currently a single strategy that all industries or all employers are adopting. Many organizations want access to broader and more diverse talent pools that bring different educational backgrounds, perspectives, and approaches to problem-solving.”

Ryan goes on to say that recruiters are also starting to consider more factors when they make hiring decisions, such as evaluating historical hiring outcomes and retention rates.

While this doesn’t yet signal a firm shift away from elite institutions, employers do seem to be looking at graduates from a broader set of schools than ever before.

2. A Shift Away From GPA

Another area that could be changing is the importance of grades. And that’s certainly new. For many years, the conventional logic was: If you go to a good school and get good grades, you’ll be a good employee.

However, not everyone agrees with that approach now. Matthew Spencer worked as an investment banker for eight years before moving into talent and recruitment. He noticed pretty quickly that “going to business school and getting great grades did not make you a great banker.”

“The rank of the school and the GPA of a candidate has very low if any correlation with their on-the-job performance,” he explains. “And we’ve seen that time and time again. It’s not to say they don’t matter—but they are weakly correlated.”

In response, Spencer founded Suited, an AI-powered recruiting network that connects firms with high-potential candidates in the law and finance industries. The firm helps recruiters identify suitable candidates through a mix of behavioral and cognitive assessments.

While Spencer is keen to stress that his experience is limited to investment banking and law, and therefore may not apply to every industry, it does suggest that firms aren’t just recruiting from a bigger pool of schools—they’re looking at a bigger pool of attributes than ever before.

3. Firms Want Workforce-Ready Graduates

Traditionally, graduates entering the workforce would go through a lengthy probationary or training period. This would give them time to find their feet in the firm and get used to the workplace. But this period of adjustment is getting shorter and shorter.

“It is not just a set of skills employers are looking for. Rather, recruiters want graduates who are ready on day one to perform and add value,” says Anne Massey, dean of the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

As ever, the responsibility to deliver workforce-ready graduates will fall on business schools. At Robins School of Business, they’re focusing on a few key areas to help prepare their students for the world of work.

An increased focus on experiential learning will also be key.

For instance, small faculty and class sizes help to strengthen their students’ teamwork skills, enabling them to collaborate more closely with classmates. According to Jonathan Adams, an increased focus on experiential learning will also be key.

“I think we’ll see more experiential learning, because students need to know what to expect [in the workplace]. For our students, a lot of events are going to be in-person, and they’re going to be working together and collaborating.”

Ultimately, Massey believes that if schools can get this right, the rewards will be clear. “If employers find that graduates they hire deliver in the workplace, they will continue to recruit at that university or school.”

4. Human Skills Will Grow in Importance

One curious consequence of the AI revolution is how it could be forcing a shift back toward in-person, “human” skills. That’s the belief of Adams, who says recruiters are increasingly looking for graduates who don’t just know AI—they know how to apply the technology.

As demand for AI mastery booms, expect to see similar demand for human skills alongside it. “Given the rise of AI, emotional intelligence and people skills are going to be even more important,” says Adams.

For business schools, developing soft skills is always a challenge. But Adams believes it’s important that career services teams “emphasize transferable soft skills” that students can apply to graduate roles.

5. The Top Skills Will Be Difficult to Quantify

It seems that recruiters are assessing more candidates than before. But that comes with its own challenges. With a wider pool of schools and potential employees, they’re also considering more skills, attributes, and characteristics. Rather than looking at individual grades or standalone skills, they’re looking for “patterns” in candidates.

For instance, Suited helps employers measure how a candidate builds relationships: Are they more outgoing or more reserved? Either type can be useful in an area like investment banking, but that alone will not predict success. Someone who is outgoing, competitive, and highly driven could be a successful banker, but so too could someone who is reserved, highly analytical, and very creative. It’s about “identifying the combinations or patterns of behavioral traits that will drive success, and those can vary substantially by firm,” according to Spencer.

The fact that firms are employing such complex recruitment technology highlights how complex recruitment has become.

Another challenge is teaching and assessing skills that are a little more intangible. Adams highlights taking initiative, curiosity, and adaptability as three areas where graduates tend to be lacking.

There are a few examples of skills that have long been valued by employers. Many things about recruitment may be changing, but according to Spencer, some of the oldest elements will always stay the same.

“Someone who is smart, learns quickly, is motivated and curious to learn more is the type of person who is going to be more successful,” he says.