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4 Tips for Recruiting Top Talent From College Campuses

Written by CB Community

Recruiting has never been more complicated. With the rise of remote work, many people are able to apply for jobs that are located all around the country without concerns about relocating to take those jobs.

This means that it is harder than ever to get connected with the right candidates for your open jobs as well as being harder than ever to secure an acceptance from these candidates when you do get hooked up with them.

If you have been wondering how to help yourself get access to talented and invested new hires, you might be missing out if you are not recruiting your new talent from college campuses.

Recruiting college graduates is a great benefit to your company as they are excited about their new career and have just recently been exposed to new ideas and industry trends that add value to your own company’s forward progress towards goals and project completions.

If you want to find out how to recruit talent from college campuses, read on!

Tips for Recruiting Top Talent From College Campuses

Hiring from college campuses is easier than you might think, but your traditional recruiting outreach will not work for younger people who have not started to apply for jobs as of yet.

You will need to adjust the way that you connect with these new candidates if you want to be able to attract and hire people who are just in the process of leaving college.

1. Use Technology to Your Advantage

Emerging professionals are tech-savvy and have limited patience for old methods of applying for jobs and being interviewed.

These new workers will not be looking at job postings like the generations who came before them and will be much more inclined to use word of mouth, or personalized outreach through social media to get leads on new jobs.

This is why social media and the use of virtual job boards and sharing sites are so important if you want to get connected with college grads who are shopping around for their first good job.

The other factor that is different about these new graduates, is that they are not going to be willing to take the first job that is offered to them.

They know that they can have their pick of the jobs that are open on the market right now, and they will take their time sorting out which job is the right fit for their needs.

Companies with the right brand messaging and availability on social media sites like LinkedIn will be much more likely to secure these recent graduates as hires than companies relying solely on email or phone outreach.

2. Connect With Campus Clubs

Many campuses have clubs and hiring associations that are made for students to help them get connected to good careers. If you are involved in these clubs, you will be much more likely to be visible to these students before they are fully graduated.

The counselors and club managers that run these organizations often curate the students and the companies who are forming connections through their organization and they will help facilitate connections between businesses and talented students looking for jobs.

Campus clubs will also sometimes let you come and speak to students about your company as well as helping to organize internships that can ultimately lead to the hire of qualified students who are ready to get started on their career.

3. Recruitment Fairs

While this might seem like an old-school method of connecting with students who are ready to start work once they graduate, these events are still very relevant to many students.

The students attending these events are often carefully planning their next steps after they are done with school, and they are the kind of people who you want to hire to work for your company.

This is a great place to meet students without the pressure of a time crunch and you can share a lot of information about your company with them at these events. You can also pass out flyers or business cards and make personal connections with each person you speak to at the fair.

These events can be a great way to cement your personalized outreach in the minds of qualified students that you will be glad you were able to hire once they are done with their degree.

4. Be Flexible and Provide Excellent Benefits

You will find that younger people are increasingly less willing to accept a 9 to 5 job that offers limited flextime and shoddy benefits.

These days, people are busier than ever and many new hires will expect that they will be given the consideration to flexing their schedule as needed for personal time when things come up.

These younger hires will also be looking at the benefits that you offer. A 401K is not really an exciting benefit anymore these days and bonuses, as well as flexible PTO offerings, speak highly to young people who are not even sure they will be able to collect social security or retirement benefits in the future.

You want to be sure that your benefits and your PTO offerings are competitive or you will lose these new grads to companies that will offer them these opportunities.

Hiring Recent Graduates Can Be Easy With These Tips

If you use these tips and adjust the way that you connect with students before they graduate, you will find that you are able to hire them right away to fill your open job postings that are suitable for their skills.

Recent graduates can be very valuable additions to your team, and you will enjoy their enthusiasm as well as their freshly trained skill set when they join your company.

About the author

CB Community

Passionate members of the College Basics community that include students, essay writers, consultants and beyond. Please note, while community content has passed our editorial guidelines, we do not endorse any product or service contained in these articles which may also include links for which College Basics is compensated.