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The Pillars of an Award-Winning Program
Mastercard was selected as a 2023 Campus Forward Award Winner for their unwavering commitment to seeking out and hiring early career talent, their emphasis on diversity & inclusion, and investments in nurturing and retaining the next generation of talent. Please see below for the highlights of their approach to early career recruitment.
Demonstrated Investment in Early Career Hiring
Mastercard is deeply invested in Early Career Talent programs, as this is an important talent pipeline for the company to continue to innovate and deliver best-in-class solutions to its clients. The campus recruitment team continues to grow to support early career talent in making the transition from school to the workplace. Mastercard employees are invited to bring their hearts, minds, and whole selves to work every day to push boundaries and dream up new possibilities. Through an award-winning internship program to an inclusive culture, the campus recruiting team at Mastercard is dedicated to connecting everyone to priceless possibilities.
Innovative and Multi-Faceted Approach to University Recruitment
The campus recruiting team at Mastercard takes a candidate-centric recruitment approach that includes a hybrid recruitment strategy, combining both virtual and in-person events to engage with candidates through their preferred method. The campus recruiting team has a university-agnostic approach while simultaneously maintaining strong relationships with select schools and partnerships. Mastercard has a dedicated HBCU recruitment manager focused on deepening its relationships with those schools. Additionally, Mastercard understands that it can be stressful for students selecting their first job opportunity after school. As a result, the campus recruiting team is focused on providing an exceptional candidate experience throughout the process by offering interview prep sessions and granting students access to ask questions at every stage of the recruitment process.
Overarching Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
At Mastercard, diversity, equity and inclusion are grounded in a broader commitment to empowering people, preserving the planet, and fostering prosperity. Mastercard believes that when it creates meaningful connections, inspires acceptance, and cultivates a culture where everyone belongs, the company is better as a result. DEI initiatives are embedded throughout Mastercard’s early career recruiting approach, as it’s imperative to have representation at the entry-level while building the future leaders of tomorrow. To engage with diverse early career talent, the team is focused on deepening its relationships at HBCU and CUNY schools, and partners with a robust set of diversity-focused partnerships with national and regional organizations. Some of these partners include NY Jobs CEO Council, Grace Hopper, Tapia and Out for Undergrad. In addition to recruitment efforts, Mastercard offers interns and new grads additional support through mentorship, business resource groups, and training programs.
Impactful Internship Program
Mastercard interns spend the vast majority of their time on a manager-driven project. This structure gives interns the opportunity to experience real-world projects with tangible business impact. Throughout the course of the program, interns can also participate in an Executive Speaker Series or volunteer activities, meet Mastercard’s BRGs, and take advantage of a virtual learning and development curriculum. At the end, interns have the opportunity to present their work to leadership. Through an immersive Intern Challenge that is unique to Mastercard, interns are grouped into cross-functional teams and work together to tackle a problem using innovative solutions. Interns also have a chance to go through an accelerated interview process with a different business area through the intern mobility process. As a hybrid internship experience, interns have the chance to engage and understand Mastercard’s culture to make the most informed decision post-internship, ultimately leading to over a 90% intern return offer rate.
Growth and Development of the Next Generation of Talent
Mastercard makes it a priority to ensure that early career talent program hires are positioned for success. These hires are provided with robust onboarding and training bootcamps when they start at Mastercard, in addition to on-the-job training and mentorship. Mastercard encourages continued learning opportunities, internal mobility, and offers a career journey platform to help connect employees with opportunities through Unlock. Mastercard also offers comprehensive benefits to support employees at work and beyond through a variety of programs including mental wellness, flexible Fridays, periodic meeting free days, work from anywhere days, and tuition reimbursement.