Timing and communication are essential for good campus recruitment

You should never underestimate the power of timing. For a baseball player, timing can mean the difference between a home run and a strikeout. For a golfer, it can be the difference between a birdie and a par. And for an employer trying to hire new grads, timing could mean the difference between getting that perfect candidate or not.

I have been working in the industry for over a year now and I can see how the lack of communication between employer and student creates problems for everyone:

As a student in your final year of university, at what point do you begin your job search? From what I have seen and heard most students don’t even think about getting or looking for a job until April.

Most large employers on the other hand, have already filled all their positions by that time, doing most of their hiring in September for full-time positions and in January for their summer roles.

What does this mean for everyone?

It means that employers are omitting a huge pool of qualified, passionate students and new grads are missing their chance to get the jobs they really want.

Employers try to combat this problem by going to career fairs and working with the various career centers at the universities, but in reality only a small percentage of students actually attend career fairs and even less use their career services department to its full extent. It’s not working. The result is the highly inefficient system we have now.

How can we improve?

Employers have to better inform students when, where and how they plan on hiring their entry level staff. This means taking steps to ensure that the students they are after are well informed on their hiring cycle and process:

• Have the information on your website
• Use any media available to get the message out
• Be connected with the schools

Conclusions:

I think the most important lesson to take away here is that in order to maximize your talent pool you should not assume that students know when, where or how you hire and should take steps to correct that.