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

All Reviews

Having spent more than 20 years in recruiting and talent acquisition, I know how quickly recruiters review resumes. In those first few seconds, a clean, organized format that allows the reader to easily find the information they need can make a real difference. Novoresume offers a great variety of professional templates that are consistently clean, crisp, and easy to navigate. What I particularly like is that the templates are intuitive to customize, with helpful features that guide candidates through the process. Compared with building a resume from scratch in Word or trying to adapt a design…

I work with candidates from around the world, and I always emphasize the importance of understanding the expectations of the market you are targeting. Novoresume’s CV templates offer a great variety of clean, professional layouts that can be customized based on a candidate’s background, experience, and goals. For candidates who have a lot of information to organize, starting with a blank Word or Google document can make it difficult to know what to include and how to structure it. Novoresume provides that structure while still giving candidates the flexibility to make their CV their own. I esp…

First impressions matter, and your resume and cover letter are often your first introduction to a potential employer. I love that Novoresume’s cover letter templates can be matched to your resume, creating a polished, cohesive look that strengthens your professional brand. Many candidates treat the cover letter as an afterthought and create something quickly that doesn’t necessarily complement their resume. These templates make it easy to create materials that feel intentional and connected. They are clean, professional, and easy to read, helping candidates present themselves at their best whi…

Melissa O'Neill

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

Recruiting Manager

Manager II, Talent Acquisition & Compensation

Talent Acquisition Manager

Owner

Education

BA in Psychology

Featured In

All Reviews

Everything you need to land the job!

All Reviews

Everything you need to land the job!