iCIMS Hire Expectations™

(Now try saying that 5 times fast!)

As a college senior, I feel as though recruiters and job fair coordinators are stalking my every moment. Between the multiple emails I receive every day from my school’s career center and the banners displayed on every building advertising upcoming career fairs - it can definitely get a little overwhelming. If it is this overwhelming for me, I can only imagine how stressful it must be for recruiters during this time. So how should a company go about standing out from the crowd and attracting top talent to their company? While there are many different strategies to do this - I researched and found what I believe to be the most effective approaches.

1. Attend Industry-Specific Job Fairs: They are so many general college fairs that attract students from every major and every interest. While these can definitely be effective, often times both the student and employer can get overwhelmed by the mass attendance and variety of options. One way to avoid this is to search for industry specific career fairs in your area (or even virtual fairs!). Many colleges offer specific fairs that cater especially to certain majors such as technology, business, etc. This gives the recruiter a higher quality candidate pool to choose from because all attendees are interested in the recruiter's own industry.

   

2. Arrange Personal Meetings Prior to Fairs: College fairs are a great way to get introduced to quality talent that may be perfect for entry-level positions at your company. However, asking students to fill out resumes on the spot can be time consuming and may cause them to move on to a different company’s booth. In order to avoid losing potential candidates, promote that your company will be in attendance, and ask for students to submit their resumes before the fair. Also, if you have implemented an applicant tracking system with prescreening functionality, you can easily search through resumes for ones that possess the skills you are interested in. Reach out to the best applicants and arrange personal meetings while at the fair to ensure you get the chance to meet them. 
3. Branded Giveaways: Who doesn’t like free stuff? While giveaways may seem over done or insignificant; according to Tim Andrews of Advertising Specialty Industry, ‘Studies have shown that students are inspired to apply for jobs where recruiters have given them a little memento.’ Whether your giveaway is something useful (like a pen) or fun (like a bobble head) they will bring more traffic to your booth and motivate more students to apply for your company.
4. Make it Social: Take advantage of social networking and recruiting sites to advertise open positions at your company. Also, implementing an ATS with social capabilities in the near future will allow for applicants to upload their resumes right from their LinkedIn profile, making it a quick and easy process for both the recruiter and the applicant!

Following these tips can make college recruiting much less overwhelming for both parties involved! Recruiters, what strategies are you using to stand out from other companies and attract top talent?