(October 31, 2003) - We're still big fans of the team over at Experience. A college recruiting service, the core staff stands out as a set of customer oriented service providers. With their customers they've compiled a set of tips for developing a college recruiting program. Here are the rest of their tips:

• Tip 6:  Use Your Job Description as a Marketing Tool
  Many job descriptions are written in "industry speak," lack specificity, and can be downright intimidating to students. It is also often one of the first communications that students see from a company.  Use the job description to your advantage by writing it in terms that students can easily understand. Ask new hires from last year's class to help re-write the job description in a student friendly tone with as much detail as you can provide.  Describe what a new hire will actually do, what they can hope to accomplish, and for what purpose.  Since students are looking to grow in their careers, anything you can add about potential career paths will get their attention. If your organization is less well-known, use the job description to further describe your company's culture or its training programs.  The more specific and clear you can be, the more your job posting will stand out and attract the qualified students you want.
   
• Tip 7:  Ask the Right Questions
  Conducting effective interviews is not just getting to know students.  It's about asking the right questions that allow you to collect as much information about the candidates as possible.  One approach, which is often referred to as "Behavioral Interviewing, " is the "S.T.A.R" system.  Determine the Situation and Task for which the applicant was responsible, find out what Action the applicant took and determine the Results of that action.   For example, ask the candidate to describe a situation in which they had to learn something new.  How long did it take? What tools did they use? What was the outcome of that situation?  Remember that past behavior and a good alignment between student responses and your organization's ideal response are the best predictors of future performance. Assessing attitude and cultural fit are also important considerations in the process. Accenture is one organization that takes this very seriously.  They hire students for mock interviews to practice their recruiters' interviewing skills.  This is beneficial for all, since both groups get to hone their skills and network at the same time.
   
• Tip 8:  Re-Engage With Your Career Center
  So what do you do if find yourself short on candidates?  Reach out and ask your career center for some help and guidance.  They may be able to help you get the word out about your organization on campus.  They may be able to connect you with student or faculty groups, contact qualified students on your behalf, or simply be on the lookout for students that meet your hiring needs.  Kasey Arceri, University Programs Manager – Central Region for Raytheon Company, highly encourages using career centers. Raytheon has a contact person for all of the schools it targets, which helps present an organized front on campuses. "We've really tried to build a partnership with career services," she says.  Career centers can act as your agents on campus and can also give you an overall perspective of how you're doing at their school.
   
• Tip 9:  Sell From Start to Finish
  The college recruiting process is a chain of events that connects employers, students and career centers together over the course of 3-4 months.  During this time, you may have done a stellar job at managing your career fair, written an outstanding job description, and run a top-notch interview schedule.  However, if the offers made to students were delayed, or if students were less than impressed by their visits to your headquarters, everything else that you might have done well can be diminished by a few weak activities.  So remember to be vigilant about the end-to-end process, not just about individual events.  Students, like your customers, will value a well-orchestrated and timely process from start to finish.
   
• Tip 10:  Planning for the Future
  You've made it to the end of the recruiting season battle-weary, but victorious.  Before you put it all behind you, spend some time reviewing what you have accomplished.  Take time to capture metrics on your hiring by school, document lessons learned along the way, and identify the areas upon which you'd like to improve.  Then, make plans to reconnect with the schools that you recruit at.  Have a focused meeting, preferably face-to-face, where both sides can review and reflect on your program – what's working and what's not – and begin to set in motion the changes that you'd like to see implemented next season.

John Sumser

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