Her Story
About Jacqueline
Jacqueline Lawrence is a recruiter with three months of professional experience following her May graduation from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a degree in communications and digital marketing. In her role, she begins each day reviewing emails and candidate touchpoints before attending an 8:15 recruiting meeting to prioritize open positions. She sets personal goals such as placing at least ten calls daily, performs qualification interviews to assess candidate fit, and submits qualified individuals to clients while building relationships that help candidates feel supported. Lawrence appreciates the flexibility of her team, which allows her to work from the office or home as needed, and she credits her success to supportive mentors including professors she remains connected with and her father, whose work ethic helps her maintain perspective in a corporate environment. Her background as a college radio host has strengthened her ability to handle high-pressure situations. She emphasizes the importance of focusing on the present rather than future goals and encourages young women in recruiting to take up space and use their voice confidently. Lawrence also notes the challenge of distinguishing authentic voices from AI during screening calls while striving to connect candidates with opportunities.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jacqueline
01What do you attribute your success to?
I have a lot of influential people in my life who are very successful, and every time that I've needed advice, I've had a lot of people to go to that are very wise and articulate in their words. I have professors that I'm still connected to today. I would say my dad is a very hard worker and super successful, and he's really helped me to kind of keep a good perspective in a 9-to-5, corporate job. Also just being able to push myself. I was a radio host all through college, so just being able to kind of put myself in scarier, uncomfortable, high-pressure situations makes me realize that I'm a lot more strong than I first believe myself to be.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Honing in on there is so much that we're always trying to get to, like, the next best thing, or the next goal in life, when really we're living in the goals that we once yearned for at time in our past. We are living that now, and so I think it's just to not ever put pressure on what's coming next, because you're already living in the goals that you were once hoping to achieve. Focusing on being in the present and getting to where you are now.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Take up the space and don't be afraid to use your voice. Your voice is your most powerful tool. I think the more confident you exert yourself to be, the more power you hold in a room, and so just remembering that you are in control of your own voice, and things can be scary, but you need to kind of push through that to really get to where you want to be. You always know what's best for you.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
It is so difficult. Whenever people are calling me for a screening interview, it's so important to now pick apart who's reading things off of an AI screen, who is AI. So many people just over the phone can easily put on an AI voice. The challenge is just making sure that the people I'm talking to are authentic people, and trying to decipher that on a call while also wanting to bring people opportunity.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
For work, a big value that I hold is live to work, not work to live. Being in a career that is so focused on allowing me to kind of have my own schedule and make my own priorities, and being with a team that also prioritizes that, changes my outlook on my career so much. Work is important, but being able to have that balance so you can go to work and fully enjoy it and be present is so important. For my personal life, just don't take everything so seriously. It really is just so important to be proud of where you are right now, and to just not continue to put pressure on self into just live in the moment, and try your best to not let that pressure get to you.
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