From the Community: Why this Winner Stands Out

“Cedric Richardson approaches his work as a Verizon Campus Recruiter with creativity, joy, and excitement, engaging Gen Z talent in new and highly personalized ways to improve not only the candidate experience, but also the keepwarm, and internship experiences.

Cedric’s work in Recruiting is highly recognized at Verizon for its collaborative nature, and for not only impacting students, but for impacting the business and the way our team works. Throughout the year, Cedric works with the Campus team and the business at large to launch and refine our recruiting strategy for specific workgroups. This year, for example, Cedric has gone above and beyond the role of a typical recruiter by offering to engage in special project work in the service of a workgroup that has struggled to bring in top talent, revisiting and revising their job descriptions, conferencing with stakeholders, and seeking creative solutions that will engage new talent in Verizon’s roles.

Relationship building is at the heart of Cedric’s work, and he wraps this directly into his recruiting practices. Cedirc meets Gen Z students where they are, offering them the insights they need to make decisions on Verizon as an employer of choice. As a result of this, students feel very comfortable reaching out to him to ask questions, or to ask for advice as they navigate the earliest parts of their careers at Verizon.

For Cedric, recruiting involves more than working with students to onboard them to Verizon; he also works hard to keep students warm, make them feel comfortable, and help them to build a sense of belonging at Verizon. Once he’s recruited a student, Cedric goes out of his way to establish touchpoints with them, going so far as to establish monthly cohort meetings with students he’s recruited to build a sense of community. This extends into the mentorship he continually offers to students who accept full-time roles with the company: he truly does build relationships that stay with students through their entire Verizon experience.

Cedric’s colleagues all agree with this assessment of his work with Gen Z talent, noting that “he understands the importance of making big decisions with all the information, and he will go above and beyond to make sure the candidate is comfortable and all of their questions have been answered.” Cedric, people say, “creates such strong bonds that the candidates understand that he is there for them, and that no question is too crazy to ask about either the role or the company.” He “speaks Gen Z language and meets them where they’re at,” notes someone else, referring to an exercise he led his most recent cohort of recruits through called ‘fill our cups,’ which really focused on positive self and team talk to lift each other up.””