American Airlines is a Campus Forward Award Winner

Building an Innovative and Multi-Faceted Approach to University Recruiting

In an effort to both provide interesting and valuable content for students, as well as stand out in a sea of employers, the Campus Recruiting team at American set out at the beginning of this recruiting season to host high engagement campus activities and buck the tradition of the boring employer PowerPoint presentation. The AA team traveled to campuses around the nation with innovative new formats such as their "Improv Comedy-Style Interview Workshop" and their "Culture at American" panel. In both types of sessions, the team's focus was not to tell students about AA jobs and "recruit" in the traditional sense. Rather, the team's aim was to help students discover and achieve their goals.

Crafting a Standout Candidate Experience

American Airlines and its Early Careers team pride themselves on creating a high-touch, memorable candidate experience that makes candidates feel appreciated, respected and cared for throughout the application and interview process. Each candidate receives personalized advice and attention, with the Early Careers team members going out of their way to take cold calls and schedule virtual/in-person coffee chats with candidates interested in learning more about early career opportunities at American. The team is highly accessible and responsive to candidate inquiries, even from LinkedIn messages of interested prospective candidates.

Moving the Needle on Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity, equity and inclusion is a north star that guides the actions of AA's campus recruiting and early careers team. Strategic partnerships are key to this team's recruitment strategy to bring in top diverse talent into the organization to feed AA's leadership pipeline. AA is a longstanding partner of prestigious diversity organizations including NBMBAA, MLT, Forte, NSBE, SWE, SHPE, ROMBA, MBA Vets, Prospanica and just started its partnerships in 2021 with The Consortium and the NCRF's Black College Expos. The team is also forging deep partnerships with HBCUs such as Jackson State University and HSIs like FIU. AA offers mentorship, EBRGs, and development programs to new employees.

Investing in Impactful Internship Programs

American Airlines offers highly engaging in-person internship experiences, the majority of which take place at their state-of-the-art Skyview 8 headquarters facility in Dallas, TX. The internship is designed to give a realistic experience of what it would be like to join AA full-time so that the intern may make a well-informed decision about whether AA is the right company for them to launch their careers. American believes in giving interns real, challenging intern projects from business unit to-do lists so that they can make a lasting impact on the business. Interns have high exposure and access to senior executives, and they are supported by mentors and given the tools to succeed.

Supporting the Growth and Development of Entry-Level Talent

American Airlines is a fantastic place for new grads to kick off their careers. The Campus Recruitment and Early Careers team partners closely with Learning & Development, Talent Management and the Business Units onboarding new grads to ensure that new hires are nurtured, supported, properly onboarded and given all the tools they need to succeed and transition into their professional life at AA. American provides unparalleled opportunity to move freely around different departments in the company every 1 to 1.5 years if employees so choose, allowing young professionals to explore their areas of interest and grow without having to move companies.

Congratulations to the team at American Airlines for being selected as one of the winners of RippleMatch's 2022 Campus Forward Awards!

RippleMatch's Campus Forward Awards recognizes the top early career teams and programs in the nation. Through a detailed application process, early career teams shared their approach to recruitment, candidate experience, D&I, and internship & entry-level programming. The programs picked for this award represent the best of the best, selected from applications submitted by campus recruiting teams across industries.

See all Award Winners for the category of Large Early Career Programs, Small Team below