> For another perspective, I help with undergraduate recruiting in a white-collar role that a lot of students from top colleges fall into (banking, consulting, finance). We used to primarily hire from top schools (“targets”) but also leave the pipeline open to cold applications from other schools. The quality of cold applications was usually lower, but there were always a few standouts.
> But the sheer volume of non-target applications, influenced by AI, has led us to drastically cut back non-target hiring. We literally can’t read them all. And so now we hire even more from our target schools, which means that the decision that most affects an applicants post-grad placement is whether an admissions counselor let them into Columbia or Duke at age 17. Our current state is an equilibrium, but it’s not a good or better one than what we had before.
pavel_lishin•5h ago
> For another perspective, I help with undergraduate recruiting in a white-collar role that a lot of students from top colleges fall into (banking, consulting, finance). We used to primarily hire from top schools (“targets”) but also leave the pipeline open to cold applications from other schools. The quality of cold applications was usually lower, but there were always a few standouts.
> But the sheer volume of non-target applications, influenced by AI, has led us to drastically cut back non-target hiring. We literally can’t read them all. And so now we hire even more from our target schools, which means that the decision that most affects an applicants post-grad placement is whether an admissions counselor let them into Columbia or Duke at age 17. Our current state is an equilibrium, but it’s not a good or better one than what we had before.