SCU Students’ Solution for Facebook
Students of Professor Sean O’Keefe’s business communication class had the special opportunity to work with Facebook as a part of their consulting project during fall quarter. The CCP, or “Community Consulting Project,” aims to connect Santa Clara students with local businesses and non-profits; it provides hands-on business communication experience as the groups solve real issues, compiling their ideas into a final consulting presentation for both the class and the companies themselves.
Seniors Gianna Christiani, Kaylee Hansen, Sally Sy, Stephanie Van, Kabir Budwal, and Kim Chi Hoang reached out to Aman Sheena, a mutual connection who works as a data scientist recruiter at Facebook, for their team project.
As Facebook continues to grow, so does its demand for hiring, especially for data scientists. Consequently, the company turned to third-party recruiting agencies to meet this need, but realized that the agencies did not have sufficient capabilities to produce quality hires, as in-house recruiters did.
In order to better understand the issue, the student consulting group arranged to meet with Aman to pinpoint a central problem with Facebook’s recruiting process that they would then try to resolve. They had two in-person meetings with Aman; the first took place over breakfast at the Facebook campus, which the group then had the special opportunity to tour. As the students learned more about Facebook’s corporate culture, they realized Facebook’s 3rd party recruiting agencies would need intensive training to fully grasp the company’s environment and needs; it was this realization that became the groundwork for their project.
Recognizing that Facebook did not have the time to commit to tackling this issue, the students decided to create a Recruiting Agency Onboarding Program to help third-party agencies better understand the specific qualifications Facebook expected of its data scientist hires.
After working independently throughout the fall, the group invited Aman to Santa Clara’s campus for their final presentation in Professor O’Keefe’s class. This proposal introduced the problem to the class, shared insight on the analysis and ideation processes, and presented their solution.
Team member Kaylee Hansen called the assignment a “great opportunity for us incoming business leaders to work closely with Facebook to deeply understand their needs and implement a plan that would provide an innovative solution. The team worked hard, smart, and we are proud of our final product!”
Professor O’Keefe applauded the group’s efforts and commended them on their “top-notch consulting report and presentation for one of the most prominent tech companies in the world.”