6 free templates for companies building an early careers pipeline without a recruiting team: corporate, first campus hire, internship program, seasonal, coordinator, and university relations. Download as DOCX.
Nearly every campus recruiter job description online was written by a company that hires four hundred graduates a year. It assumes a target school list someone else built, a regional team, an events budget, and a coordinator handling the calendar. If you hire six students a year and the recruiter also books the table and ships the swag, that posting describes a job you are not offering.
The pool is not small. The National Center for Education Statistics counted 15.4 million undergraduates enrolled in degree-granting institutions in fall 2021 and projects 16.8 million by 2031. What is small is the number of employers who compete for them with any structure at all, which is precisely where a company without a recruiting department can win.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for that reader. The six below cover a corporate campus recruiter, a first campus hire at a small business, an internship program owner, a seasonal recruiter, a coordinator, and a university relations manager, each with the classification note the generic versions leave out. More hiring templates sit in the same library.
TL;DR
A campus recruiter owns university hiring from school selection to signed offer, plus the internship program that feeds junior roles. Exemption turns on duties: program owners can be exempt above $684 per week, coordinators and season executors are not. BLS folds recruiters into human resources specialists at a $75,940 median. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What a Campus Recruiter Actually Does
A campus recruiter owns the university hiring pipeline end to end: choosing the schools, holding the career center relationships, running the events and interviews, and closing offers that often start nine months later. At a large company those are four jobs. At a small one they are a single person.
The shape of the role depends almost entirely on which situation you are in, and getting that wrong is the most common reason a campus hire fails. The four below carry different seniority, different pay, and different overtime consequences.
You have no program yet
The build-it hire
Students already reach you through a founder’s alma mater and the occasional professor. Nobody owns it, nothing is measured, and the school list is an accident. Your first campus hire writes the playbook rather than running one.
You hire interns every year
Program management, not sourcing
The hard part is not finding students, it is running the cohort: real projects, assigned mentors, a mid-point review, and a return offer decision. That is closer to program management than to recruiting.
You hire in one short season
Seasonal or contract
If the whole year of campus hiring happens in ten weeks, a permanent full-time recruiter sits idle for the other forty two. A seasonal W-2 recruiter fits better, and the classification defaults to non-exempt.
You hire dozens of graduates
University relations
Once the class size runs past what one person can interview, the role turns into strategy, budget, and a team. That is a manager job with a different exemption analysis and a very different salary.
Write the Posting for the Program You Have, Not the One You Want
The fastest way to lose an experienced campus recruiter in their first season is to advertise a program owner role and hand over a logistics job, or to advertise a strategic hire and give them no budget. Decide honestly which of the four situations you are in before you pick a template. If the answer is that one person will do strategy and logistics both, say so in the posting and pay for the range. Candidates who want that job exist, and they are the ones who stay.
What Belongs in the Posting
A campus recruiter posting does four jobs: it describes the program, it sets expectations about travel and load, it protects you legally, and it closes the candidate. Most postings only do the first, which is why they attract applicants who leave after one season.
The parts recruiters read first
Company size and industry in two sentences
How many students you hire a year, stated as a number
Which functions you hire into
Whether the program exists or has to be built
The parts that set expectations
Travel percentage and which months carry it
Number of target schools
Evening and weekend event reality
Who runs logistics, or whether the recruiter does
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
Essential functions written plainly
Equal opportunity statement
No age-coded language such as recent graduate only
The parts that close the hire
Salary or a good-faith range
Bonus structure and what it is tied to
Who the role reports to and who it works with
A named person and a real timeline to apply
The two omissions that cost the most are travel percentage and whether a coordinator exists. Experienced campus recruiters screen for both, because those two facts decide whether the job is survivable in October. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure, and the recruiter job description templates cover the non-campus versions of the role.
6 Campus Recruiter Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification and compliance note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 Campus Recruiter Job Description Templates
Corporate, first campus hire, internship program, seasonal, coordinator, and university relations. All in one download.
Campus Recruiter (Corporate)
The standard in-house role
Owns the school list, the calendar, the interviews, and the offers for an established program with an existing budget.
First Campus Recruiter
Small business, build from zero
The version no other template library offers: a founder-reporting role that designs the program, not one that inherits it.
Internship Program Recruiter
Cohort and conversion
For companies whose interns are the junior hiring pipeline, with projects, mentors, return offers, and the intern pay rules stated.
Seasonal / Contract Recruiter
One peak season
For a fixed recruiting window, with the contractor warning and the overtime reality of evening events written in.
Campus Recruiting Coordinator
Logistics, non-exempt
For the scheduling and travel engine underneath the recruiter, classified honestly as an hourly, overtime-eligible role.
University Relations Manager
Strategy, budget, team
For the senior version: school portfolio, budget ownership, direct reports, and accountability for early careers outcomes.
Template 1: Campus Recruiter (Corporate)
The standard in-house role for a program that already exists, with the school list, the calendar, the interview loops, and the offer process all in scope.
Campus Recruiter Job Description (Corporate)
CAMPUS RECRUITER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Head of Talent / HR Manager / Founder]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt or non-exempt (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
Travel: [percentage] during the [fall / spring] recruiting season
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] is a [industry] company in [City, State] with [team size
descriptor] employees. We hire [number] students and recent graduates each year
into [engineering / sales / analyst / operations] roles, and we are hiring a
Campus Recruiter to own that pipeline end to end.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Campus Recruiter builds and runs our university hiring program: selecting
the schools we recruit at, managing relationships with career centers and
student organizations, running events and interviews, and converting offers
into signed acceptances and eventual full-time hires.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own the target school list and justify it with hiring outcomes, not tradition
•Build and maintain relationships with career centers, faculty, and student
organizations at [number] schools
•Plan and staff the recruiting calendar: career fairs, info sessions, coffee
chats, case competitions, and [virtual / on-campus] interview days
•Source candidates through school job boards, student groups, and referrals
•Screen resumes and run first-round interviews against a written rubric
•Coordinate hiring manager interview panels and debrief decisions
•Extend offers, negotiate within approved bands, and manage acceptance
deadlines and renege risk
•Keep candidates warm between offer and start date, which at campus timelines
can be [number] months
•Track and report funnel metrics: applications, interviews, offers, acceptance
rate, and intern-to-full-time conversion
•Represent the employer brand accurately, including pay, location, and the
real content of the first year on the job
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in recruiting, university relations, or a student-facing role
•Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
•Comfort presenting to rooms of [20 to 200] students
•Willingness to travel [percentage] during peak recruiting season
•Organized enough to run [number] simultaneous school relationships and
interview loops without a coordinator
•Clear written communication with students, faculty, and hiring managers
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (read before posting)
Classify on duties, not on the job title. Under the federal regulations,
personnel staff who screen applicants against minimum standards set by someone
else generally do not meet the administrative exemption, while someone who
formulates and implements the hiring program and makes or drives hiring
recommendations generally does. A campus recruiter who owns the school
strategy, the budget, and the offer decisions is a stronger exempt candidate
than one who staffs events and schedules interviews. Any exempt classification
also requires the current federal salary threshold of $684 per week ($35,568
per year). If the role is non-exempt, track hours honestly, including travel
time and evening events during recruiting season. This is general information,
not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the
basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or
genetic information, and we provide reasonable accommodations for the essential
functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [bonus structure], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short note on a
school program you built or improved.
Template 2: First Campus Recruiter, Small Business
The version no other template library offers: a founder-reporting hire who designs the program instead of inheriting it, and who has to prove the channel works before anyone funds it.
First Campus Recruiter Job Description (Small Business)
FIRST CAMPUS RECRUITER JOB DESCRIPTION (SMALL BUSINESS)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Founder / Head of People]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt or non-exempt (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
Travel: [percentage], concentrated in [months]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] has hired students informally: a founder's alma mater, a
professor who sends good people, an intern who worked out. We are turning that
into a program, and you would be the first person to own it. There is no campus
team to join, no target school list, and no playbook. You would write all three.
POSITION SUMMARY
The First Campus Recruiter designs our university hiring program from zero:
choosing schools, building the calendar, running the process, and proving with
numbers whether campus hiring is a channel we should keep investing in.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Decide which [3 to 8] schools we recruit at and write down why
•Build the first version of the recruiting calendar and stick to it
•Establish career center relationships and get us on the fair and info
session lists, which often requires committing a season ahead
•Design the interview process: screening questions, rubric, panel, and the
bar for a hire, since none of that exists yet
•Run every stage yourself in year one, from first email to signed offer
•Design the internship program: projects, mentors, pay, and the conversion
path to a full-time offer
•Set the metrics we will judge the program by and report them to the founder
every [month / quarter]
•Build the pitch that makes a [industry] company of our size compelling
against employers with bigger names and earlier deadlines
•Hand over a documented, repeatable program by the end of the [first / second]
recruiting cycle
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in recruiting, with at least one full campus cycle owned or
co-owned
•Comfort operating without an existing process, budget precedent, or team
•Willingness to do the unglamorous parts: booking tables, shipping swag,
scheduling around class timetables, answering student email at night
•Ability to say no to schools and events that do not produce hires
•Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
WHAT WE OFFER THAT LARGER EMPLOYERS DO NOT
•Full ownership of a program instead of one region of someone else's
•Direct access to the founder and to hiring managers
•Decisions in days, not review cycles
•[Equity / profit share / other], and the first line on your resume that says
you built a campus program rather than ran one
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
A program owner who sets the strategy, controls the budget, and drives hiring
decisions is the strongest case for the administrative exemption, but the
exemption still requires the current federal salary threshold of $684 per week
($35,568 per year) and a duties test based on what the person actually does.
Do not assume that giving a first hire a big title creates an exemption. If the
first season is mostly logistics and screening against standards you set, treat
the role as non-exempt and pay overtime, including for travel and evening
events. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [equity], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and one paragraph on
which schools you would pick for us and why.
Still Using Spreadsheets for Onboarding?
Automate documents, training assignments, task management, and track onboarding progress in real time.
For companies whose interns are the junior pipeline, with cohort logistics, mentor assignment, return offers, and the intern pay rules stated plainly. Pair it with the guide to hiring interns before you post.
Campus Recruiter, Internship Program Job Description
CAMPUS RECRUITER, INTERNSHIP PROGRAM JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Head of Talent / HR Manager]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt or non-exempt (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
Program size: [number] interns per [summer / semester]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] runs a [number] person internship program each [summer /
semester] and treats it as our primary source of full-time junior hires. This
role owns the whole cycle: recruiting the class, running the program, and
converting the strongest interns into offers.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Campus Recruiter for the Internship Program recruits, hires, and supports
each intern class, coordinates projects and mentors with hiring managers, and
manages the return offer process that turns interns into full-time employees.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Recruit and hire [number] interns per cycle across [functions]
•Work with managers before recruiting starts to define real projects with real
deliverables, not busywork
•Assign a mentor and a manager to every intern before day one
•Run intern onboarding: paperwork, systems access, orientation, and the first
week schedule
•Run the mid-point check-in and the end-of-program review for each intern
•Manage the return offer process: criteria, timing, and communication
•Track conversion rate from intern to full-time hire and report on it
•Collect structured feedback from interns and managers and change the program
based on it
•Maintain the intern alumni list for future full-time recruiting
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in recruiting or program management
•Experience running a cohort program, or evidence you can manage [number]
concurrent relationships without losing anyone
•Project management skill, since the program is more logistics than sourcing
•Comfort pushing back on hiring managers who want free labor rather than a
real project
•Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Two classification questions live in this role. First, your own: a program
owner who designs and implements the internship program has a real case for the
administrative exemption, subject to the $684 per week salary threshold and the
duties test. Second, and more expensive if you get it wrong: the interns
themselves. At a for-profit company, the Department of Labor applies a
seven-factor primary beneficiary test to decide whether an intern is an
employee owed at least minimum wage and overtime. No single factor decides it,
and a promise of compensation or of a paid job at the end weighs toward employee
status. The safe and simple answer for most small companies is to pay interns
as employees. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [bonus tied to conversion rate], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a description of an
internship program you improved.
Template 4: Seasonal / Contract Campus Recruiter
For a fixed recruiting window, with the independent contractor warning and the overtime reality of evening events and travel written into the classification note.
Reports to: [Head of Talent / HR Manager / Founder]
Employment type: Seasonal W-2 employee, [start month] through [end month]
FLSA status: Non-exempt unless the duties test is clearly met (see note)
Compensation: $_ per [hour / week]
Travel: [percentage] during the season
ABOUT THIS ROLE
Campus hiring is seasonal, and so is this role. [Company Name] recruits hard
for [number] weeks each [fall / spring] and very little the rest of the year.
Rather than carry a full-time recruiter through a quiet calendar, we hire a
seasonal campus recruiter for the peak.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Seasonal Campus Recruiter runs our recruiting season end to end: the fair
schedule, the info sessions, the screening, and the interview loops, working to
a fixed target of [number] hires within a defined window.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Execute the recruiting calendar at [number] schools within the season
•Staff career fairs and info sessions, including evenings and [weekends]
•Screen applications and run first-round interviews to a written rubric
•Schedule and coordinate hiring manager interview panels
•Move candidates through the process fast enough to beat competing deadlines
•Log every candidate and every decision so the record survives the season
•Deliver a written handover at the end: what worked, which schools produced,
and what to change next cycle
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Prior recruiting or campus experience, or strong student-facing experience
•Availability for the full season including peak weeks and travel
•Reliable, self-directed work with limited supervision on the road
•Comfort with a hard end date and a defined hiring target
•Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Two mistakes are common here. First, calling a seasonal recruiter an
independent contractor. If you set the schools, the schedule, the process, and
the rubric, you are directing an employee, and the seasonal label does not
change that. Second, assuming exemption. A seasonal recruiter executing a
program someone else designed is very likely non-exempt, which means hourly pay
and overtime past forty hours in a week. Recruiting season produces long weeks,
evening events, and travel, so budget for overtime rather than discovering it
later. Track hours from the first day. This is general information, not legal
advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [hour / week], overtime paid at time and a half,
[travel and expense policy], [completion bonus]
To apply, email __ with your resume and your availability
for [season dates].
Template 5: Campus Recruiting Coordinator
For the scheduling and travel engine underneath the recruiter, classified honestly as hourly and overtime-eligible. The general version lives in the recruiting coordinator templates.
[Company Name] is hiring a Campus Recruiting Coordinator to keep our university
hiring program running on schedule. This is the logistics engine of campus
recruiting: the scheduling, the travel, the materials, the candidate
communication, and the records that make the season repeatable.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Campus Recruiting Coordinator schedules interviews, books events and
travel, communicates with students and career centers, prepares materials, and
maintains accurate candidate records throughout the recruiting cycle.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Schedule interviews across student class timetables and interviewer calendars
•Book career fair tables, room reservations, travel, and shipping of materials
•Send confirmations, reminders, directions, and status updates to candidates
•Keep candidate records current and complete at every stage
•Prepare interviewer packets: resumes, rubrics, and question sets
•Handle day-of event logistics, setup, and teardown
•Collect and file signed forms, offer acknowledgments, and start date details
•Pull the weekly funnel report for the recruiter and hiring managers
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in a coordination, scheduling, or administrative role
•Precise, calm handling of a high volume of small deadlines
•Professional written communication with students and faculty
•Comfort with calendaring, spreadsheets, and recruiting tools
•Availability for occasional evenings and [weekends] during peak season
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
This role is non-exempt. Coordination, scheduling, and screening against
standards someone else set are the textbook example of work that does not meet
the administrative exemption, regardless of salary. Pay hourly, track hours,
and pay overtime past forty hours in a week. Recruiting season reliably
generates evening and weekend hours, so plan the budget around that instead of
treating it as a surprise. Compensable time includes required travel between
sites during the working day and time spent staffing an evening event. This is
general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, overtime at time and a half, [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 6: University Relations Manager
For the senior version of the function: school portfolio, budget, direct reports, and accountability for early careers outcomes. Compare it against the talent acquisition specialist templates if the scope is broader than campus.
University Relations Manager Job Description
UNIVERSITY RELATIONS MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Head of Talent / VP People / Founder]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (administrative or executive; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
Direct reports: [number]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] treats university hiring as a strategic channel rather than a
seasonal errand. The University Relations Manager owns the whole early careers
function: the school portfolio, the brand on campus, the internship program,
the full-time pipeline, and the budget behind all of it.
POSITION SUMMARY
The University Relations Manager sets and executes early careers hiring
strategy, manages the recruiting team and budget, owns institutional
relationships with universities, and is accountable for the volume, quality,
and cost of our student and graduate hiring.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Set the early careers hiring strategy and defend it with data
•Own the school portfolio: add, cut, and rank schools on hiring outcomes
•Manage a team of [number] recruiters and coordinators
•Own the campus budget: events, travel, sponsorships, and materials
•Build institutional relationships with career center directors, deans, and
faculty, including [sponsorships / capstone projects / advisory boards]
•Direct employer brand work on campus and measure whether it moves applications
•Set the interview standard and the bar, and audit whether we hold it
•Partner with function leaders on headcount forecasting a year ahead
•Report early careers performance to leadership: cost per hire, acceptance
rate, conversion rate, and retention at [12 / 24] months
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in recruiting, with [number] years owning campus or early
careers programs
•Experience managing recruiters and a real budget
•Data fluency: able to defend the school list and the spend with numbers
•Executive communication with both a dean and a founder
•Bachelor's degree; advanced degree optional
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
This role is normally exempt. Someone who formulates and implements hiring
policy, controls a budget, and directs the work of two or more full-time
employees has a strong case under the administrative or executive exemption.
The salary basis and salary level tests still apply: at least $684 per week
($35,568 per year), paid on a salary basis, plus the duties test. Document the
duties in the job description rather than relying on the manager title, because
in an audit the title is the first thing disregarded. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [bonus], [equity], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a summary of an
early careers program you owned, including the numbers.
Exempt or Non-Exempt: Classifying the Role
Campus recruiting roles fall on both sides of the overtime line, and the deciding factor is authority rather than title. Someone who sets the strategy and drives hiring decisions can be exempt. Someone who executes a plan built elsewhere generally is not.
The federal regulation on administrative exemption examples addresses the HR function directly: staff who formulate, interpret, or implement employment policies generally meet the duties test, while personnel clerks who screen applicants against minimum standards set by others generally do not. Our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through the full test.
The exemption turns on who decides
The federal regulation on administrative exemptions draws the line inside the HR function itself. Staff who formulate, interpret, or implement employment policies generally meet the duties test. Staff who screen applicants against minimum standards someone else set, and who reject anyone below the bar, generally do not. Campus recruiting splits along exactly that seam. A recruiter who chooses the schools, sets the rubric, controls the budget, and drives the offer decision is on the exempt side. A recruiter who executes a calendar built elsewhere and passes qualified resumes upward is on the non-exempt side, whatever the business card says. Write the job description to describe the real level of authority, because in a wage audit the duties on paper are compared against the duties in practice. This is general information, not legal advice.
Exempt still requires the salary tests
Duties alone never create an exemption. The employee must also be paid on a salary basis at no less than $684 per week, which works out to $35,568 a year, and the highly compensated employee shortcut sits at $107,432. Those are the figures currently in force: the 2024 rule that would have raised them was vacated by a federal court in November 2024 and formally rescinded by the Department of Labor on May 15, 2026, which restored the earlier thresholds. Entry level campus recruiting salaries at a small company can land close enough to that floor that the question is live rather than theoretical. Check the number against the offer before you write exempt on the posting, and check your state as well, because several set higher salary floors than the federal one. This is general information, not legal advice.
Season means overtime, so budget for it
Campus recruiting is not a forty hour a week job for the eight to twelve weeks that matter. Career fairs run past dinner, info sessions are scheduled in the evening because that is when students are free, travel eats weekends, and interview days start early. For anyone non-exempt, all of that is compensable time and much of it lands past forty hours in a week. The mistake small employers make is treating overtime during the season as an accident rather than a line in the plan. Decide before the season starts whether you are budgeting overtime hours or capping the calendar. Travel that is part of the working day counts as hours worked, and so does required attendance at an evening employer event. Track hours from day one rather than reconstructing them later. This is general information, not legal advice.
Age-coded language is the campus specific risk
Campus recruiting attracts phrasing that other hiring does not: recent graduate, digital native, new grad only, young and energetic team. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers aged forty and over and applies to employers with twenty or more employees, and the federal enforcement position is that it is illegal to publish a job advertisement that shows a preference based on age. This cuts two ways for you. It applies to the campus recruiter posting itself, and it applies to every entry level posting that recruiter will write and publish on your behalf. Recruiting exclusively through one narrow channel can also produce a discriminatory outcome even without discriminatory intent. Describe the experience level you need rather than the age or graduation year you picture, and keep the entry level door open to career changers. This is general information, not legal advice.
Scenario
Likely classification
Why
Recruiter picks schools, sets the rubric, owns the budget
Exempt, if paid above the salary threshold
Formulating and implementing hiring policy
Recruiter runs a calendar and rubric set by someone else
Non-exempt
Screening against standards set by others
Recruiting coordinator scheduling interviews and travel
Non-exempt
Coordination and administration, no policy authority
Seasonal recruiter executing one defined season
Non-exempt
Executing a program rather than designing it
University relations manager with two or more reports
Exempt
Executive or administrative duties plus supervision
Salaried recruiter paid under $684 per week
Non-exempt regardless of duties
Salary level test fails before duties are reached
Recruiter labeled an independent contractor by the company
Almost always an employee
You control the schools, schedule, process, and rubric
The salary figures behind that table are the ones currently in force: $684 per week, or $35,568 a year, plus $107,432 for the highly compensated shortcut. The 2024 rule that would have raised them was vacated in federal court in November 2024 and formally rescinded by the Department of Labor in May 2026. Several states set higher floors, so check yours before you write exempt on a posting.
The Intern Program Attached to the Role
Most campus recruiter roles come with an internship program attached, because at a small company interns are the pipeline rather than a side project. That means the posting has to describe program management, not just sourcing.
It also brings a second classification question, and this one is more expensive to get wrong. At a for-profit company, the Department of Labor uses a seven-factor primary beneficiary test to decide whether an intern is an employee owed at least minimum wage and overtime. No single factor is decisive, and a promise of pay or of a job at the end weighs toward employee status. The practical answer for most small employers is to pay interns as employees and skip the analysis.
Unpaid Internships Are the Most Common Small Company Mistake
The seven-factor test replaced an older six-factor version in January 2018 after courts rejected it, and the flexibility of the new test is not the same thing as permission. The test asks who the primary beneficiary really is, and at a small company an intern doing shipped work that a paid employee would otherwise do is a hard case to defend. Pay the intern, put the rate in the offer, and treat the program as a hiring channel with a return offer decision at the end. Our internship offer letter template covers the paperwork.
What to Pay a Campus Recruiter
There is no separate federal occupation for campus recruiters, so benchmark against human resources specialists, the classification that recruiters are counted within. Use the percentile ladder rather than the median alone, because campus roles span a wide seniority range.
The Federal Benchmark for Recruiters
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), human resources specialists, the occupation that includes recruiters, had a median annual wage of $75,940 across 944,300 workers. The percentile ladder runs $47,180 at the 10th, $58,610 at the 25th, $99,380 at the 75th, and $128,720 at the 90th. Human resources managers earned a median of $149,280 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Role level
Benchmark (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
Note for a small employer
Campus recruiting coordinator
$47,180 (10th percentile)
Hourly and non-exempt; budget for season overtime
Campus recruiter, early career
$58,610 (25th percentile)
First one or two seasons owned end to end
Campus recruiter, experienced
$75,940 (median)
The national median for the whole occupation
First campus recruiter, small business
$75,940 and up
Pay above median: the role is build plus run
Senior campus recruiter
$99,380 (75th percentile)
Owns the school list, the budget, and the intern program
University relations manager
$128,720 (90th percentile)
Program owner with direct reports
Human resources or recruiting manager
$149,280 (median, HR managers)
Where the function reports at a larger company
Two adjustments matter. Metro pay varies enough that a national median is a starting point rather than an answer, and a first campus recruiter at a small business should be paid above the level their years of experience suggest, because building a program is harder than running one. Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply, and tie any bonus to something the recruiter controls, such as acceptance rate or intern conversion, rather than to headcount decisions made above them.
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Campus recruiting invites phrasing that other hiring does not, and some of it is a legal problem. Recent graduate only, new grad, digital native, and young team all encode age, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers aged forty and over at employers with twenty or more employees.
Federal enforcement guidance states that it is illegal to publish a job advertisement showing a preference based on a protected characteristic including age, and that recruiting itself can discriminate even without intent, using the example of word-of-mouth hiring in a workforce that is already homogeneous. That applies to the campus recruiter posting and to every entry level posting the recruiter will publish for you.
Describe the Experience Level, Not the Graduation Year
The fix is mechanical. Replace recent graduate with zero to two years of experience. Replace new grad program with early careers program. Replace young and energetic with the actual behaviors you want. Keep the entry level door open to career changers, who are frequently the strongest hires in a junior role and who are exactly who a graduation year filter excludes. Then apply the same edit to the intern postings, since a campus recruiter multiplies whatever language habits you hand them.
The same discipline pays off in the interview. A written rubric applied identically to every candidate is both the fairest process and the most defensible one, which is why our guide to the structured interview is worth reading before the season starts, alongside the material on candidate experience.
Campus Hiring Without a Recruiting Team
Small company campus programs fail in three predictable places: they compete on the wrong things, they underdescribe the workload, and they collapse under the paperwork when the whole class starts in one week. Each has a fix.
You are competing against employers with bigger names and earlier deadlines
Large employers lock their intern classes months before a small company has finished forecasting headcount, and they arrive on campus with a brand students already recognize. You will not win that comparison on prestige or on calendar position, so compete where a small company is genuinely better: the intern works on something shipped rather than a training exercise, the mentor is the person who built the product, the founder knows their name, and the hiring decision takes days instead of a review cycle. Say those things in the posting and on the table at the fair, because students cannot infer them from a company name they have never heard. Then move fast on offers, since speed is the one advantage a small employer can spend freely.
One person is the recruiter, the coordinator, and the interviewer
At a small company the campus recruiter books the table, ships the materials, schedules around class timetables, screens the resumes, runs the first round, coordinates the panel, writes the offer, and answers student email at eleven at night. That is four jobs, and pretending otherwise in the job description produces a hire who quits in the first season. Either write the posting honestly and pay for the range, or split the logistics into a coordinator role and say so. Being specific about which parts the recruiter owns is also what separates a posting that attracts experienced campus recruiters from one that attracts anyone who has read about recruiting.
The offer is signed in October and the start date is nine months later
Campus hiring has a gap that no other hiring has: the accepted offer and the first day can sit two or three semesters apart, and everything that keeps a candidate warm across that gap has to be deliberate. Then the whole intern class starts in the same week, and the paperwork lands at once: offer acknowledgments, tax forms, eligibility verification, handbook sign-offs, equipment requests, and training assignments for every new person simultaneously. FirstHR was built for that kind of burst. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every hire, e-signature handles the offer acknowledgment and policy sign-offs, document management stores the signed forms against each employee profile, and training modules cover orientation before day one. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Speed is the advantage worth protecting. Where a large employer needs weeks of review to move a candidate forward, you can decide in days, and shortening time to hire is the single cheapest edge a small employer has on campus. Once the offer is signed, the work becomes a repeatable onboarding checklist that survives an entire cohort starting at once.
Key Takeaways
Match the template to the situation: no program yet, an annual intern cohort, a single short season, or a full early careers function, because each carries different seniority and pay.
Classification turns on authority, not title: program owners who set strategy and drive offers can be exempt, while coordinators and season executors are non-exempt and owed overtime.
Any exempt classification still requires salary basis pay of at least $684 per week ($35,568 a year) after the 2024 rule was vacated and formally rescinded in May 2026.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has no campus recruiter occupation, so benchmark against human resources specialists: $75,940 median (BLS OEWS, May 2025), with a ladder from $47,180 to $128,720.
Interns at a for-profit company are presumed employees unless the seven-factor primary beneficiary test says otherwise, and paying them is the simplest way to stay compliant.
Strip age-coded phrasing such as recent graduate only from both the recruiter posting and every entry level posting that recruiter will publish for you.
Campus hiring lands in one burst, and the paperwork lands with it. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence for every new hire, with e-signature for offer acknowledgments and policy sign-offs, document storage against each employee profile, and training assigned before day one. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a campus recruiter do?
A campus recruiter owns a company’s university hiring pipeline from school selection through signed offer. The work splits into four parts: choosing and maintaining relationships with a target list of schools, career centers, faculty, and student organizations; running the recruiting calendar of fairs, info sessions, and interview days; screening and interviewing students against a written standard; and closing offers, then keeping the candidate engaged across a gap that can run two or three semesters between acceptance and start date. At larger companies each part belongs to a different person. At a small company it is one person, and often that person also books the travel and schedules the panel. Most campus recruiters also own the internship program, because interns are the main source of full-time junior hires.
What should a campus recruiter job description include?
Include eight things: your company size and industry in two sentences, how many students you hire per year as an actual number, which functions you hire into, whether the program already exists or has to be built from zero, the travel percentage and which months carry it, the number of target schools, the FLSA classification, and the salary or a good-faith range. The two most commonly omitted items are the ones that matter most to an experienced campus recruiter: travel load and whether a coordinator exists. A posting that hides a one-person operation behind a corporate-sounding title produces a hire who leaves after the first season. Add the equal opportunity statement, name a real person to apply to, and give a timeline.
Is a campus recruiter exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
It depends on duties, not on the title, and both answers are common. The federal regulation on the administrative exemption says that staff who formulate, interpret, or implement employment policies generally meet the duties test, while staff who screen applicants against minimum standards set by someone else generally do not. A campus recruiter who picks the schools, sets the rubric, controls the budget, and drives offer decisions sits on the exempt side. One who executes a calendar designed elsewhere and passes qualified resumes upward sits on the non-exempt side. Either way, exemption also requires salary basis pay of at least $684 per week, or $35,568 a year, and some states set a higher floor. Recruiting coordinators are almost always non-exempt. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a campus recruiter make?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate occupation for campus recruiters. Recruiters are counted inside human resources specialists, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), that occupation had a median annual wage of $75,940 across 944,300 workers, with the 10th percentile at $47,180, the 25th at $58,610, the 75th at $99,380, and the 90th at $128,720. Human resources managers, the level a university relations manager compares to, had a median of $149,280. For a small employer, benchmark an entry campus recruiter around the 25th percentile, an experienced one near the median, and a program owner with direct reports toward the 75th percentile or above, then adjust for your metro.
Should a small company hire a full-time campus recruiter or a seasonal one?
Match the hire to how concentrated your hiring actually is. If your entire university hiring year happens in a single eight to twelve week season and produces fewer than about a dozen hires, a seasonal W-2 recruiter fits the work better than a full-time role that idles for the rest of the year. If campus hiring is continuous, or you run an internship program that needs managing through the summer as well as recruiting in the fall, a full-time role makes sense. Two cautions on the seasonal route: classify the person as an employee rather than an independent contractor if you control the schools, schedule, and process, and expect a non-exempt classification with real overtime during peak weeks, because evening events and travel add up fast.
Do we have to pay our interns?
At a for-profit company, usually yes, and paying them is the simplest way to stay out of trouble. The Department of Labor applies a seven-factor primary beneficiary test to decide whether an intern is an employee entitled to at least minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The factors look at whether both sides understand there is no expectation of pay, whether the training resembles what a school provides, whether it is tied to formal coursework or academic credit, and whether the intern is entitled to a paid job at the end. No single factor decides it, and the analysis is fact specific. A promise of compensation weighs toward employee status. For most small companies the practical answer is to hire interns as paid employees and skip the analysis entirely. This is general information, not legal advice.
How do we run campus recruiting without a recruiting team?
Run a narrow program properly rather than a wide one badly. Pick three to five schools where you have a genuine connection, commit to their fair and info session calendar a season ahead, and write down why each school is on the list so you can cut the ones that do not produce hires. Use a written interview rubric so decisions survive the volume, and move faster than the large employers you compete with, because speed is the advantage a small company actually has. Then plan for the operational gap: offers signed in autumn, an entire class starting in the same week months later, and every piece of paperwork arriving at once. FirstHR runs that onboarding sequence with e-signature, document management, and training assignments. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
