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STUDENT INTEREST DRIVING CHANGES IN RECRUITING STRATEGIES WITHIN TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES
But that’s not to say financial services and consulting aren’t feeling the pressure of growing student interest in tech. That interest is one factor causing investment banks and consulting firms to change their recruitment strategies.
“The acceleration is the biggest trend,” Vogel says of the timing of campus recruitment. “More and more companies are trying to start building engagement with students earlier and earlier.”
They’re getting more in line with the times, too. “It’s not the old boys club — our students are kinda done with that,” Cassidy says.
Vogel echoes those thoughts, saying he has seen an uptick in financial services firms focusing on women and under-represented minorities in recruiting. Consulting firms have recently begun to emphasize both of those groups as well, along with LGBTQ students, Vogel says.
Geography seems to be shifting, too.
“We haven’t always been a high target school for a lot of those folks,” Sorenson-Wagner says of some high profile financial services and consulting firms. “Yeah, we have a lot of relationships with those companies, but it’s not the same as some of our friends based on the East or West coasts. But we’re starting to see them have more interest in our students, which I’m assuming to mean they are having to be more aggressive in their recruitment of top talent beyond their traditional means.”
Mark Sorenson-Wagner. Minnesota Carlson photo
SCHOOLS BEGINNING WEST COAST TECH TREKS FOR FACE TIME WITH TECH COMPANIES
But tech’s growing popularity can’t be denied. And schools are also getting crafty in lining their students up with high-profile companies. Last March, for the first time ever, Kenan-Flagler took a group of undergraduate students on a week-long tech trek in San Francisco. In a couple weeks, McDonough will do the same, taking its first group of undergraduate students on similar tech trek to the San Francisco Bay Area.
“There’s less incentive for companies to come to campus,” Cassidy says of West Coast tech companies. “It’s becoming more and more important to get the students in front of companies in other ways.”
INVESTMENT BANKS TAKE UP MOST TOP-10 SPOTS IN TOTAL COMPENSATION
The average total compensation among all 26 companies is $91,224. (Total compensation includes average salary, average bonuses, and an average of other compensation like travel expenses.) Recent graduates at three tech companies (Microsoft, Google, and Amazon) reported three of the four highest average compensation packages among all companies. Financial services firms claimed five of the top 10 spots, and Bain and BCG filled out the other top-10 spots, representing the only two consulting firms in the top 10 for average total compensation.
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