.png){kind=logo}
The Pillars of an Award-Winning Program
adidas was selected as a 2024 Campus Forward Award Winner for their unwavering commitment to seeking out and hiring early career talent and investments in nurturing and retaining the next generation of diverse talent. Please see below for the highlights of their approach to early career recruitment.
Standout Candidate Experience
The ECTA team at adidas emphasizes potential over experience by focusing on transferrable skillsets, motivation, and adidas’ people values. Motivation is measured during the initial application phase when candidates are required to submit a creative brief instead of a traditional cover letter. The prompt encourages candidates to use an 8.5x11 piece of paper to respond to “show us who you are and what impossible is nothing means to you”. This allows candidates to practice their storytelling capabilities in a non-traditional format. During fall engagement and during the open application phase, candidates are shown examples of successful creative briefs submitted by prior interns. During the interview phase, candidates are provided with a list of questions they can expect for the first-round interview with the recruiting team.
Overarching Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
As a global sportswear company, adidas has commitments to fight racism and accelerate inclusion globally. adidas' United Against Racism commitments focus on embracing and enabling greater diversity, equity and inclusion within the company, talent processes and in communities. The Early Career Talent Acquisition team strives to attract, recruit, promote, and retain the best talent that reflects a diverse workforce across the business. That is why in 2021, the team kicked off their HBCU strategy focused on increasing HBCU candidates in the internship pipeline, which included a partnership with the HBCU Career Development Marketplace. In 2023, the team expanded their D&I initiatives by attending the Fall 2023 Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) Virtual Career Expo through Handshake.
Impactful Internship Program
At adidas, the major focus for interns is the ability to work on a meaningful project that has the potential to impact their team, department, and the business overall. During their first week, Line Managers provide an overview of the intern’s project with milestones, deadlines, and key deliverables. As an integral part of the team, the intern plays a key role by gathering data, reaching out to key stakeholders, and putting together a proposal they share at the end of their internship. Additionally, interns are allocated 10% of their internship to dedicate to professional development, which can include involvement in Employee Resource Groups, choosing from a variety of courses through LinkedIn Learning, or pursuing technical skills in the adidas MakerLab such as shoe making.