Melissa O'Neill
Recruiter | Career Advisor | Talent Acquisition Manager
- Director of Career Advising, Simon Business School
- 20+ Years in Talent Acquisition & Compensation
- Career Coach to Master's Students at a Top US Business School
Melissa O'Neill is the Director of MS Career Advising at the University of Rochester's Simon Business School, where she leads a team of career advisors and coaches Master's students in Finance pursuing careers in the US and internationally. She brings over 20 years on both sides of the hiring process. As Recruiting Manager at Wayfair she led a team of full-cycle recruiters competing for talent in one of the toughest hiring markets in tech, and before that she spent 12 years at Hillside Family of Agencies, one of upstate New York's largest human services organizations, ultimately managing talent acquisition, compensation, and HRIS for the agency. Earlier in her career she owned her own staffing firm, OnPoint Staffing, recruited financial representatives as Director of Recruitment at Northwestern Mutual, and ranked among the top 5 of 85 sales professionals in her region at Robert Half. Melissa's rare combination of recruiting and compensation expertise means she advises candidates on the entire journey, from what makes a resume survive screening to how the salary that follows gets decided. She holds a BA in Psychology from SUNY Brockport.
Facts
She coaches Master's students through job searches every day at Simon Business School, so she sees in real time what employers are currently asking of early-career candidates in the US and abroad.
She managed the salary administration program at Hillside, building formal grades, salary ranges, and job evaluations, which gives her insider knowledge of how compensation offers are actually constructed.
She has spent 20+ years on both sides of the hiring table, from agency recruiting at Robert Half to leading in-house recruiting teams at Wayfair.
Experience
Director, MS Career Advising
2024 - Present
Simon Business School, University of Rochester
Recruiting Manager
2021 - 2023
Wayfair
Manager II, Talent Acquisition & Compensation
2019 - 2021
Hillside Family of Agencies
Talent Acquisition Manager
2009 - 2019
Hillside Family of Agencies
Owner
2006 - 2009
OnPoint Staffing, Inc.
Education
BA in Psychology
State University of New York College at Brockport
Featured In
- Simon Bizcast, the Simon Business School podcast, where she was interviewed about how the Benet Career Management Center supports students through their career search (on Apple Podcasts and Spotify)
- Simon Business School Admissions Blog, a Q&A titled "Navigating Your Post-MS Job Search" built around her webinar and career strategy insights