A large majority are also using direct application through employer websites (71.3%) and networking with friends, family and alumni connections (67.5%) to aid in their job hunt.

Of those who were employed within a month or so of graduating, however, the methods least used were job advertisements in print publications (9.2%) and employment agencies (3.2%).

These are just some of the findings published in the Dalhousie University Career Services Centre Destination Survey, Spring 2009. The survey went out for the first time to a mass number of graduates from May 14 to June 25, 2009.

Of those graduates were employed at the time of the survey, the largest number – about half (50.4%) – found their jobs by directly applying through an employer website. This number isn’t surprising, however, since most large employers require applicants to apply for openings by completing an application and/or uploading a resumé to the company’s applicant tracking system (ATS).

Many employed graduates also used job search websites (27.8%) and networking (33.8%) to ultimately find their first job.

As for when they made their career decisions, the findings of the survey showed no dominant time period.

1. What we do. We help students and recent grads find meaningful jobs by bringing top Canadian companies on the site to advertise their entry-level jobs and internships, and we also produce and aggregate resources and content which help students and recent grads manage their job hunt, career and life. Essentially, we’re helping our friends, classmates and colleagues help themselves through a challenging transition.
2. Our awesome company culture. This information may not be as widespread as What we do, but those of us who work for TalentEgg take the opportunity to share it among our friends and family as often as possible:

• The average age of TalentEgg employees is 24, so we’re a tight-knit group of colleagues that are sometimes more like friends.
• We try to get around more traditional (and expensive) ways of doing business by being creative and tech-savvy.
• Everything each of does on a daily basis has a huge impact on What we do and how successful we are at doing it.
• Flexibility: I played in a softball league last summer and was allowed to leave very early every Thursday to attend the games. This year, I worked from home for four and a half months until I was able to move back to Toronto. One of my colleagues skips lunch every day so he can leave at 4 p.m. instead of 5. Our last intern was able to miss two days of work on short notice to attend a conference she got a free ticket to. Ultimately, these simple allowances give us every reason to love our boss and the company instead of resent them.
• We close up shop early on Friday afternoons to sit in our office and talk about what happened that week and what’s coming up in the weeks ahead … over beer. Just one beer each and half-an-hour to an hour of positive, business-related conversation which we all contribute to is enough for us to leave the office every Friday pumped about the work we do.

I know this all sounds a bit like an ad for TalentEgg or something, but I started thinking about why my colleagues and I think this is a great place to start or further our careers after reading this article from Fast Company: How Do You Attract and Retain Generation Y? Learn From Google, Intuit and Disney by Bea Fields. Although the top of the article contains all the typical Gen Y jargon, the bottom lists 10 companies which do really cool things aside from their business to attract and retain young employees.

What I took away from the article is that employers don’t have to do everything under the sun to attract young workers like my colleagues and me. TalentEgg doesn’t have the resources to offer the same perks as, say, Google; but it works with what it has to keep its employees happy. And if a company as small and as new as TalentEgg can do that, any company should be able to do the same.

With the exception of Google, each company on Fields’ list focuses on one thing:

• Intuit engages workers by rotating them between departments
• Disney creates raving fans through its renowned internship program
• Deloitte and Touche offers a state-of-the-art coaching and mentoring program
• Nike headquarters sits on acres of land which also contains a fitness centre, playing fields and running trails

Check out the full list to read up on what perks and opportunities the other five companies offer their current and future employees.

Without hesitation, I answered that March, April, May and June are the peak times when students seriously look into their career prospects, and start applying for their first meaningful jobs.

But when my contact asked for numbers and stats to prove my answer, I had none that I could think of off the top of my head – my opinions on this topic have always come from my own experience, and the experience of other students I’ve known both personally and through TalentEgg.

Quickly, I decided to look at traffic patterns on TalentEgg to see if my theory was correct. Turns out, it was:

While there was a slight peak in September, and another little peak in January, what this graph shows is that in March, students REALLY get down to business. The numbers in the Spring are more than double what they are in the Fall.

For employers still focusing all of their campus recruitment budgets on September, maybe it’s time to give the Spring a second look?

Whether it’s a reality or not, media coverage highlights job losses in the thousands at all kinds of companies and an unstable job market in general. There’s a lot of short-term contract work out there and, although new grads probably don’t want to work at the same company in the same job for their entire life, a little bit of stability would be nice.

Indeed, companies from all sectors are hiring, but the most favoured sector seems to be anything government-related. While big business is letting people go to save money, governments pour money into the economy in the form of infrastructure and people are hired at all levels to make these things happen. (And, of course, they’re not afraid to advertise all that spending.)

Government-related industries, such as health care, are also seen as safe, stable places to work because they can’t make drastic cuts at any given time due to the economic climate. There are dozens of nursing positions listed on TalentEgg at any given time, for example, and many technology-related roles remain unfilled as well.

How do we know all this? Well, traffic to our government jobs page is through the roof. This trend is also supported by Graham Donald in Brainstorm Consulting’s From Learning to Work Report.

And it’s not a surprise, really. It’s almost like the law of supply and demand: there are seemingly fewer jobs out there for students and recent graduates, so they want to snag one of the more comfortable, secure jobs to avoid the stress of worrying about what would happen if they lost their job due to the state of the economy.

What type of applicant are you looking for? How much experience does the position require? Are the qualifications broad or very specific?

Free job boards

Free job boards are online outlets where employers can post their opportunities for free. They are well-suited for filling roles that have very broad requirements in terms of experience, expertise and education.

The benefits:

• No cost
• They tend to have high traffic

The drawbacks:

• Because there are so many companies using them, it is easy for your company and your brand to become “lost” in the masses
• Anyone can post a job, meaning there are plenty of scams, pyramid schemes and other undesirable companies. You may not want your image associated with these types of companies or work
• No target audience
• No guarantee of high-calibre candidates and applications, so you may receive a large number of applications from unqualified applicants

Paid job boards

Paid job boards are online outlets which require the employer to pay to post an opportunity. The biggest job sites are paid job boards such as Monster or Workopolis.

There are industry-specific sites, mega sites and just about everything in between. The key is finding the one with the best fit for your company.

The benefits:

• A targeted audience
• High-quality applications and candidates
• A more controlled environment: you can choose sites which will protect your company’s brand or image
• Return-on-investment tracking: find out how many people are viewing your profile and postings, opening your emails, etc.

The drawbacks:

• There is a cost associated with posting
• There are usually no guarantees that you will find the person you are looking for

It’s a place for them to find job postings, learn about Canada’s top entry level employers and find information on the school-to-work transition.

Recruiting uses and benefits

TalentEgg can help with many of your recruiting needs:

• Provide exposure to top-level talent from a nationwide pool
• Support all of your on campus events
• A database of more than 7,000 highly motivated students and new grads who have joined the site to receive employment information from employers
• More than 17,000 students and new grads visiting TalentEgg every month
• Relationships with career centers across the country
• Active on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• Like a career fair online – open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Send branded emails to a targeted audience

Cons

While TalentEgg can help employers target groups of students based on many different factors they do not have individual relationships with their students and therefore can not recommend anyone in particular.

How to get started

It couldn’t be easier to get set up with TalentEgg.

Just give them a call at 647-298-7451 or send an email to ryanb@talentegg.ca

Being the extremely resourceful person that you are, you immediately sit down at the computer (isn’t everything on the Internet yet?) and begin searching for your very first meaningful job. You visit all the major sites and some of the lesser know ones too; Monster, workopolisCampus, Eluta, craigslist, etc.

If you have ever actually tried searching for a position on Monster or workopolis you know it can be a little harder than it seems. What you begin to realize is that there is no dedicated service that helps new grads find entry-level roles. When searching with these huge job boards the sheer volume of jobs can become a hindrance rather than a help. There are thousands of amazing positions on those sites; the only problem is the other ten thousand no-name companies pushing call centre jobs at best, trying to scam you at worst.

Often, when searching for opportunities for new graduates you end up inundated with a million listings most of which are either unacceptable because it requires a) too much experience or b) not enough education. Let me explain.

It is our thinking that a university graduate, who has just spent upwards of $50,000 on their education, wants to be recognized and rewarded for that accomplishment. A new grad job is not a call center employee, it is not a waiter or waitress, it is not a street marketer; it is a career starting opportunity.

It is a Staff Accountant position with BDO, it is a Financial Adviser role with SunLife, and, more than anything, it is an experience that will make you more valuable in the future.

That is why at TalentEgg we have made it our business to provide new grads and students with only meaningful entry level positions that will be true career building experiences. Unlike Monster and workopolis we screen every company and every job posted on the site to ensure that it is valuable to our new grads and students.

We also provide the employer with a space online to describe what its like to be a part of their company. In this way we try and be a little like an online career fair. Our employers understand that to attract the best new grads they have to recruit them. They have to illustrate to you why they are better to work for than the next guy. In the end employers end up with better employees and new grads end up with better jobs, sounds about right, no?