Departments

Meet The Recruiter: Jonathan Schmidt, Trinity Western University

Who’s Jonathan Schmidt?

I’m Jonathan Schmidt, an Admissions Manager at Trinity Western University (TWU). After graduating from TWU in 2017 with my Bachelor’s in Business, I knew I wanted other students to experience the same incredible journey at TWU that I had, so I stuck around. I’m passionate about connecting students with a university that cares about providing them a whole-person education. My joy in recruiting, so far, has been seeing those students who I’ve guided to a perfect university fit excelling in their studies and growing both personally and professionally.

Outside of work (and sometimes inside), I’m a nerd. You’ll typically catch me building computers, and other board games, reading fantasy novels, and generally nerding out on the latest smart-home technology.

My Favourite Things

My favorite weather is fall where it’s recently rained but the sky is sunny and full of clouds at the same time, with a light breeze and crisp air. I love reading (Brandon Sanderson is my favorite author), and I love marathon board game sessions of games like Power Grid, Terraforming Mars, or Risk (the more complex the better).

My biggest passions all revolve around making things look good or doing things the most efficient way possible. At work this looks like making sure the systems and processes we use are the simplest and most effective they can be, while eliminating practices that waste time. At home this plays out differently, usually appearing in ‘how many things can I fit inside this box’ or getting my smart home tech to all operate in perfect harmony.

Outside of Work

When I’m not on the road you can usually find me online with friends, most recently exploring the wild world of Virtual Reality. When not on VR, I can easily be convinced to pick up a new Crafting/Survival game or fulfill all my deepest desires for efficiency by jumping into a factory & resource management simulator like Factorio. Outside of those I love traveling and my wife and I collect unique individual bottled Root Beers just for fun (up to 147 at last count, all different).

Why Admissions?

I jumped into Admissions like I think a lot of people start into the role; not having any idea it existed as a career and not really knowing much about it outside of ‘it sounds really interesting’. I started in admissions right after finishing my B.B.A at Trinity, seeing it as an opportunity to stay at the place I loved and had impacted my life so much over the past few years (except now I got paid to be here). In the end recruitment appealed to me as a way to stay at a place I loved, and I’m still here because of the incredible variety being in admissions provides.

The variety and constant need to solve new problems are some of the things I really love about what I do. Being a recruiter at Trinity isn’t just a desk job from 9-5. You get to travel to new places, meet interesting people, and every student that I meet is a new relationship to develop. When problem-solving or working with team to analyze recruitment strategy it can feel like one of my games has come to life. While this is absolutely what excites me about admissions, when too much variety happens at once and I get pulled in 18 different directions (as sometimes happens during certain seasons) I find myself dreaming about what it would be like to only have one thing to do at a time.

Post Pandemic Realizations

One thing I’m appreciative of about the pandemic is the societal shift in how we approach meetings, events, and similar processes. Covid forced everyone to re-evaluate certain ways of living. Things like virtual doctor appointments or working from home became normal, and they’ve made the world more accessible and convenient. Pre-covid, those things would have been considered too bizarre or complex, or just not worth the time to institute.

Photos Courtesy of Jonathan Schmidt