One Job + One Job = One Job

Did you see today's Career Journal section of the Wall Street Journal? I don't know about you, but "Help Wanted: Senior-Level Job, Junior Title, Pay" caught my attention. The piece discussed a trend that's apparently becoming more and more common at companies adjusting to a weakened economy: combining what were two or even three jobs into ONE job, then giving it a lower-level title and offering a lower-level salary to match. Employers are doing this to cut costs any way they can and stretching assets -- in this case, people -- is something now on the table.

Yikes!

As professionals in career services, we all know that Gen Y candidates are graduating and entering the workforce at a breakneck pace. Some recruiters are capitalizing on young grads and in some cases are offering entry-level salaries but dishing out more responsibility than what you'd expect for a first job out of school. According to the article, these recruiters are figuring younger workers might not notice or might even be grateful to take on a job with more responsibility than the typical lower-level position.

But is it worth it? Near term, maybe. Long term? No.

The first thing that comes to my mind is the 'ol "churn and burn" factor. I'm all for multitasking and getting my hands dirty when it comes down to the work at hand, but at the same time a person can only do so much before quality of work vanishes in favor of quantity. Other major considerations, which the article notes, are everything from morale issues to retention concerns. In the end, savings will not be fully realized if employers need to continually run ads, post jobs, engage in on-boarding, etc. Their company brand can also get tarnished from an employment perspective. Who would want to work for a company that has a reputation for being a revolving door?

In the article, Amy Armitage, a partner at Capital H Group, a human-resources consulting firm based in Chicago, offers a quote that's definitely worth pondering. "You've got to look very closely at what jobs are being cut and ensure you don't cut into the bone, into the things that are really adding value to your customers and to what's really creating the growth engine of your company."

Have you seen this trend as your young grads search for and start their first jobs? Or, if you're a recruiter, what are your thoughts on this strategy?

Photo by xdjio

A Refreshing Two Days in July

Every year in July we get together with our university board of advisors. This year, like prior years that I can remember, was another hot and humid couple of days in Boston.

This year, unlike all prior years, we had employers from our employer advisory board join the meeting and advance the conversation.

Some of the most interesting trends and questions posed and discussed by the group were:

How do employers select target schools - employers seem to do this very differently. Schools and employers both believe some aggregation of school profile information would make it easier for employers to figure out which schools to target.

Lower on-campus recruiting turnout - reasons included career fairs becoming the primary point of employer interaction, internships as a pre-recruitment tool, and some students going direct to employers.

Parental involvement - the "CEO parent" (previously known as the "helicopter parent") was mentioned as a phenomenon that both groups are seeing that doesn’t seem to be going away...

Fall recruitment is happening earlier – push for certain talent – business, engineering - is happening even earlier in October. Companies want their interview schedules earlier each year. Career centers are trying to accommodate but it's hard when everyone wants the same timeframe. Some career centers are working with employers in the same industry to align offer and notification dates when they can.

Getting involved with faculty, student groups and athletic organizations on campus – employers want to “fish where the fish are” so are engaging different parts of campus. Some career centers offer to be the coordination point for this activity; others prefer that employers manage on their own.

So yes it was hot, but the dialogue, idea-sharing, collaboration and camaraderie was refreshing and invigorating for all of us at Experience.

Photo (left to right): Stan Jackson (Experience), Cindy Henderson (Northern Illinois University), and Mike Sciola (Wesleyan University).

Screaming for Ice Cream

There's an ice cream truck that parks itself at my favorite Cape Cod beach, and it's always a treat to get a Chipwich or a good old-fashioned Popsicle in the heat of the summer sun. Last weekend, when buying a treat for my son and one for myself, I randomly thought of one of my favorite Far Side cartoons by Gary Larson. Called "Failed Marketing Gimmicks," the strip features the driver of an asparagus truck (looking just like an ice cream truck) calling out to the neighborhood: "I cuss, you cuss, we all cuss for asparagus!"

As a marketer who spends a lot of time in Gen Y land, I'm constantly thinking of how to better engage the 18 to 30 year-old demographic who interact with Experience in one form or another. And like the driver of the ill-fated asparagus truck, there are times when trying to persuade college students to actively engage with career services feels like selling veggies to kids who just want a sundae. Know what I mean?

With the fall semester and recruiting season about to begin, the team at Experience is currently producing many back-to-school themed marketing messages for our partner schools. Our clients can then tailor these messages to market career services directly to their constituents, including everyone from incoming freshmen to seniors looking to set up interviews with employers. And as is always the case, we're walking that fine line between what we think will be both creative and effective.

Getting one's career off the ground is serious business. It can be stressful and even scary for some. So as we enjoy these dog days of summer, treat yourself to some ice cream and then take a look at what you've done to connect with college students and young grads -- whether it's marketing messages of your own, a job posting, direct emails or even advertising. Are you giving Gen Y what they want? If you're not, you might as well be driving that asparagus truck.

Photo by Roadsidepictures

Happy 50th Birthday NASA from The Launch Pad!

Today I'm recovering from a migraine and coming down with something else so I can't guarantee I'm going to make any sense. Therefore, read at your own risk :).

NASA is celebrating its 50th birthday as a government agency which merits pause for thought in my book. It's amazing to think that someone's vision to travel into space became a reality. Really. In many ways I take space exploration for granted, when it's a reminder that (as cliché as it sounds) anything is indeed possible.

If we all took the 'anything is possible' approach to our lives and our careers what would the world look like? Don't get me wrong, I recognize that 'dreams' are all relative and don't have to be as big and bold as walking on the moon. I just wonder how many dreamers get stuck because they don't know how to bring their dreams to fruition.

Moreover, what can we do to motivate each other?

I know I'm inspired by lots of people, particularly my colleagues (some of whom I'm looking at right now). There are many people here at Experience who juggle family and work while still managing to pursue other dreams like running marathons, traveling around the world, volunteering in Africa, snowboarding and more. There is also a guy who is differently-abled and relies on a walker to get around. His commute to work each day is like serial obstacle course that would send most of home for good. Yet, he's here each morning eagerly sharing his daily struggle just to show up to work, like a great adventure!

It's unlikely I will every invent something that changes the way people live or travel to space. But, I do feel like I am living my own little dream each day. Do you?

The Best Takeaway

I don't know about you, but the fact that August will be here next week just blows my mind. August's arrival means back-to-school is right at our doorstep. It also means the fall recruiting season is about to kick into high gear.

It certainly has been a busy summer, though, and before I get into the meat of this post I want to say thanks to Erin for covering for me a couple of weeks back. Thanks, E! As she mentioned, I attended the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference (WPC) in Houston along with my colleague Ray Matthews. Ray and I, representing Experience at the Microsoft Students-to-Business (S2B) booth, spent the week speaking with Microsoft partners from all over the world. Of all the folks we talked to, a good chunk of them being from overseas, nearly every single person told us the same thing: finding good, qualified and reliable talent is becoming harder and harder. And all of them seemed blown away by the value S2B brings to the table.

As an online community (a talent community as Erin alluded to) geared towards technically minded students, young grads and the employers looking to hire them, Microsoft S2B is well on its way to being the ultimate destination for IT and MIS candidates looking to put their know-how to work. And it's not just about the highly targeted job and internship postings. In addition to the opportunities, students and alumni who join the S2B community -- for free -- will have access to training materials, insightful industry content and software. As for the partners, a VP of Sales from a large Southeastern software vendor said it to us best: "this is the best takeaway from the conference!"

To me, that just about says it all.

Are You Tired Of Hearing About Interns?

Okay, so anyone who knows me is tired of my rants about the importance of internship programs to any recruiting strategy, so I decided I will instead write about the topic for now on. Despite that the economy is sluggish and gas prices appear to be soaring to $7 per gallon,
recruitment is still highly competitive. Particularly in disciplines like engineering where
the number of graduates with engineering degrees drops about 20 percent each year,
while the number of engineering positions continues to increase.

So, in order to get their attention start an internship program where you recruit freshman and sophomores in addition to upper classman. An internship program is a great way to build a talent pipeline and also drive employee retention because the program allows prospective full-time employees to test drive you as well.

One suggestion for those of you who don’t know where to being is to create a baseline job description for an intern who can work on cross-functional teams or for several people in one department. Of course you’ll need one dedicated manager so the intern doesn’t get lost but it’s a great way to introduce an internship program to your company while you determine where the immediate and long term need is for interns throughout the company. Another suggestion is not to focus on hiring the students with the best GPA from the best schools. Bring in a wide variety of candidates and hire based on fit…..I guarantee you will not regret it.

In the fall of 2006, we had an intern from Boston University named Evonne who interned for the Employer marketing team. She reported to one person but wound up working on a variety of projects for others (including me). I had enough exposure to her work and her personality to know that she was definitely somebody we needed to bring in full time if the opportunity arose. So, when a position opened this spring in our marketing department, she was the first person we thought of and as a group made a very quick decision to hire her.

Why? Because we knew she was dedicated, professional and thorough and that she has great attitude and was a great fit for a high energy culture.

Evonne has showed up and blown away some very high expectations we had for her. I think a huge reason for her success is that she interned for us so we knew what we were getting and she did too. Evonne could also have graduated at the top of her class or the bottom of it….it didn’t matter because she’d already shown she was more than equal to the task of working for Experience full time! So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Moving on to non sequiturs, I realize I was was remiss in congratulating the Celtics on their win in the NBA finals in my last post! For anyone who watched you finally got to see what how good Pierce really is and how on-point Shaq was when he named him The Truth!

Enough out of me.

Where is Mark? What is Student-to-Business?

So with Marketing Mark (we have a DBA Mark too) off to Houston, TX to Microsoft’s worldwide partner event I decided to jump on the blog and tap away in his absence. I’m sure he won’t mind. In case you’re wondering why Marketing Mark would attend it is because we have partnered with Microsoft on their Student-to-Business community initiative.

The S2B program is program is designed to connect Microsoft partners and customers with qualified students for
entry-level and internship positions. Experience is powering their job site portal which directly connects job seekers with information technology (IT) career opportunities. Through our network, Microsoft's 10,000 partner companies can post jobs or internships and find personnel entry level talent.

So very cool in my opinion! Why you ask? Because talent communities are the next generation of recruitment (again…in my opinion).

Recruitment has evolved from newspaper listings to online posts and now everyone is in agreement we need more. The way I see it, building a loyal community of prospective candidates that interact with and offer by offering them more value (in S2Bs case it’s free software and more) than just your job lists so that you build a rapport and a mutual understanding of who you are as a company and establish relationships with prospects who are the best fit for your organization. This costs more money upfront but I believe this pays for itself many times over in employee productivity and retention….

What do The Celtics and College Recruitment Have in Common?

Nothing. It's been over 20 years since the Celts have won a world championship so I wanted to take the opportunity to gratuitously say Go Celts!

So what's going on in the recruitment world this week? Engineering and accounting industries are still hiring like gangbusters according to Robert Half and many other reliable sources. As for the rest of us, we are supposedly not in a recession.....it just looks like one :).

The tip off for me that the economy was in trouble was was last summer when gas prices began their meteoric rise. That was followed by a record year of recent graduates accepting job offers, not necessarily because it was the job they wanted but because they are hard to come by. Our goal is to work with students while they are in school so they can pursue to a career path they love and not 'take the first job they can find' after they graduate.

What do you think? Are we in a recession? If so or if not, tell us how that is impacting your hiring budgets, practices, etc?

Speak Into the Mic

If you haven't read it yet, check out the recent Cheezhead.com post on the topic of audio resumes. Apparently the company JobCircle has introduced a new tool called VoiceIntro, which as a self-proclaimed resume enhancement the product is designed to do just that -- give candidates the opportunity to "introduce" themselves with their own voice via a prerecorded audio snippet.

It works like this... you sign up for the service for free, call a toll-free number and leave a 60-second resume voice introduction. The site even plugs how easy recording your message can be: "You don't need a microphone or fancy recording equipment - just a phone and the ability to talk about yourself."

I don't know about you, but my confidence in this is about as high as it is with video resumes (see my related post). It’ll be interesting to see if this kind of thing takes off. My guess is that it won't... at least not now, not with the "dial-an-intro" phone concept. It screams awkwardness to me. Similar to video, if the resulting audio voiceover isn’t polished and compelling it will most likely undermine the candidate’s efforts. Conversely, if the audio winds up sounding like it’s the guy from MovieFone, that probably wouldn’t do much good either! Both would either tick off recruiters for wasting their time or just get some laughs.

In my former life as a local radio advertising salesperson, I had a boss who drilled this mantra into my head: "it's the delivery, not the leave behind."

You could be the most qualified candidate of them all. Your resume could be absolutely perfect. But unless you record a flawless and genuine message, the audio introduction will only be a disservice... and ultimately you will not sell yourself.

Isn't that the point?

Photo by Duchamp

Mass. Exodus - Is it Only Massachusetts?

Scott Kirsner published an article in The Boston Globe today that focused on a couple of key topics near and dear to my heart. The first is something that’s been written about for the last 10 years, the exodus of talented college graduates to other states after they receive their degree from a Massachusetts-based college or university. The second point is what the state and industry can do to change it

There are a lot of variables that have contributed to the decline of the 25-34 year old population in Mass. including the out-of-control cost of living and the completely inflated housing market. That along with lousy weather and long suffering Boston drivers make me wonder why I still live here. That said, the cost of living and housing markets are even worse in California which continues to grow in population.

Scott suggests campaigning college students to keep them where they are after college.

“Every year, students at local business schools fly west for the annual "Tech Trek." They visit companies like Genentech, Google, Apple, Boeing, and Starbucks, getting tours of the headquarters and an opportunity to question senior executives about strategy. Amazingly, only the Sloan School of Management at MIT organizes a tech trek of Massachusetts companies, visiting businesses like Bose Corp., Boston Scientific, and Zipcar. Why don't student groups, profs, local companies, and trade associations get their acts together to create opportunities to drop in on Massachusetts businesses, either during a single concentrated week, or throughout the academic year?”

I agree with Scott that the state needs to do more but I also think employers and schools in Mass. (and nationwide) can be doing more as well. Employers need creative recruitment practices give students the opportunity to experience the company brand, facilities, culture and more in real-time. If that sounds like too much, remember it can be a one-day event or once-a-quarter event. Also, if you have the budget to travel to on-campus events or post nationwide job listings than you can probably relocate some of it to educate great candidates in your community on what you do and why they should join your company.

Schools should be working with employers to drive these programs on campus. It won’t cost them anything to do it and will only help their student base find amazing internships, work-studies and jobs.

My soon-to-be husband is a Texan who stayed in Mass. after graduating from Northeastern because of a girl (not this girl). It didn’t work out with the girl but it worked out with Mass. and he stayed long enough for us to meet. (I lucked out :) However, you can’t count on love to retain great candidates. State government, employers and schools should all be doing there part to keep great candidates in state after graduation.

Some will leave anyway but many will stay if they are given solid reasons for doing so.
As for me, despite that I'm New Englander (born and raised) I may leave eventually because I’m still not used to the weather!

Gen Y and Financial Services

In today's Marketing Daily from MediaPost, there's an interesting article on Generation Y and their need for financial guidance. According to "Gen Y Is Going To Need Financial Guidance More Than Most," people born between 1977 and 1994 make up only about 5 percent of financial advisors' client base. Millennials (generally speaking) have more student debt than previous generations, continue to rack up credit card debt and do not put money away for retirement or other savings. Less than a third who are able to participate in a tax-deferred retirement savings plan are doing so, even though they are the generation most in need of financial planning.

It wasn't until I was 30 (and engaged) when I sought professional assistance in my personal financial planning. As a 20-something in the 90s, I was always conscious of the need to save. I opened up IRAs, 401-Ks and the like. But it wasn't easy and I know I could have done more. Aside from helpful parental advice and my Rookie's Guide to Money Management book, I was on my own. And I imagine college-educated people just starting out in their careers today are in similar positions: they'll just figure it out as they go along.

I don't remember there being any financial services counseling at my undergraduate career services center while I was a student. In hindsight, I'm sure I would have benefitted from even basic advice. Does your school offer counseling of this nature? Managing money is of course a vital part of career planning, but I have a feeling this "real world" counseling may inadvertently fall by the wayside while the heat is on for students to graduate, find jobs and get started with the next chapter of their lives.

Photo by Rob Lee

Are Social Networks for Socializing or Networking?

I confess, in late 2002 I joined Friendster at the behest of a friend and in 2003 I was wooed away from Friendster and introduced to Myspace by the man I will marry in four months. So when Facebook opened their membership to the general public, I put my foot down and declared a ‘social networking profile creation’ moratorium. My resolve lasted about five weeks when in the dark of the night I found myself once again typing ‘The God Father I and II’ under ‘favorite movies’ in my new Facebook profile.

No, I'm not a shameless narcissist who has to be everywhere. My sole motivation was to keep in touch with family and friends on the three sites. (Actually two since nobody I know uses Friendster anymore). At first, I logged on nightly to update my page and to also look at everyone else’s. Then the novelty faded and now I check them occasionally to see if anything new iss happening with friends and family.

Anyway, the media has covered the issue of employers using Facebook to ‘get to know’ potential candidates and rescinding offers as a result of these fact finding missions. There has also been a lot of press coverage about Gen Y’s feelings about employers intruding on what used to be their turf and their turf only.

So, I was surprised when I read a story in the New York Times that reported how people are using Facebook as a means to find a job. Say what? Since when?
Everyone I know uses Facebook and MySpace to post photos with clever captions, maybe make plans, but most of the time just kill an hour voyeuristically perusing the pages of people they don’t know (the latter is not possible on Facebook, just MySpace).

Well, when you get to heart of the story it's revealed that people are finding the ‘connections’ necessary to find a job, but not the actual jobs on social networks. I’ll give them credit for taking a ‘by any means necessary’ approach to networking, but it seems like an odd choice given that social networks have people from age 10-100 whose primary purpose for logging in is to ‘socialize’ which is a very different from of networking in my book.

Furthermore, there are many alternatives like Linked In (or our own Experience Connections if I might shamelessly plug it) that offer the same networking opportunities in a professional environment (and where the sole objective is professional networking). I mean would you go to the Mall of America to buy a new toothbrush? It just seems like a convoluted strategy for job hunting when there are so many other options that are not only more direct but have a proven record of connecting candidates to employers.

Maybe I’m just an old Gen Xer, but I don’t believe that ‘finding employment on Facebook’ is a trend now and I don’t believe it ever will be.

Video Killed the Resume Star?

There was an interesting article in Monday's New York Post on the topic of video resumes -- touching on the fact that though they've been plugged as the next BIG thing in recruiting, they really haven't gained much traction with employers.

The article, "Trailing Paper," includes contributions from industry experts (including our own Jenny Floren) and outlines three primary obstacles to video resumes: discrimination concerns; inefficiency issues; and poor performance on behalf of the candidates in the videos themselves.

In the story, one college career services professional offers his viewpoint: "I've had no employer ask for a video resume, nor have any of my students asked for that service. It sounds like hype to me." Another expert suggests just the opposite, indicating that video resumes will take off very quickly with Gen Y entering the workforce and today's tweens following them relatively shortly thereafter.

Personally, in my line of work (marketing), I think video resumes are a bad idea. My biggest issue isn't with discrimination possibilities or it being a timely exercise for recruiters -- it's with the whole notion of what's appropriate. If the video isn't as polished and professional as possible, credibility (and the candidate's chances) immediately goes out the door. And if it's really bad, it could potentially wind up on YouTube as a lesson in what NOT to do. Ever hear of the Yale student who in all seriousness submitted a video resume to an investment bank? In addition to touting his financial strengths, the video included him performing karate, playing tennis and engaging in deep philosophical discussion. It fast became the joke of Wall Street.

What do you think?

Photo by slushpup

What Would You Do with a Portfolio?

We held a webinar today on Online Career Portfolios with nearly 100 career centers in attendance. After talking to half a dozen schools who use online career portfolios today, we found that they are being used as both a career development tool (identifying strengths and interests) and as a way for a student or an alum to showcase his/her talents and experiences.

On the employer side, we surveyed over 100 recruiters and 42% told us they would use portfolios as part of the interview screening process (especially with on-the-fence applicants) and 22% said they would use them after the interview to learn more about a candidate.

Check out a sample portfolio and tell us how you would most likely use it.

News from Nashville

I spent the early part of last week at the SHRM Staffing conference in Nashville. Around 1500 people attended - most were corporate recruiters although we did meet with some recruiters from colleges and universities looking to hire for faculty and staff positions.

First of all, the conference site - the Gaylord Opryland resort - was humongous! Every time I stepped out of my hotel room into the 9 acres of atrium-enclosed indoor gardens, waterfalls, conference areas and 3000 rooms, I got lost (seriously, I am not kidding). If it were not for the trusty map they handed me when I checked in, I would probably still be there.

When I actually got where I wanted to go, I learned a few things:

I heard Pat Summit, the head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team give the conference keynote. She is the winningest coach in NCAA history. She talked a lot about attitude, teamwork, team ownership of a goal, loyalty and accountability - values that she has tried to instill in her team to get them to the next level and to tackle their next challenge together. What a powerhouse!

I also saw Kevin Carroll, the author of the Rules of the Red Rubber Ball. His session was on Rediscovering Play : Bringing Fun and Passion to Your Work and Life. Kevin interjects fun and play into work environments to spur creativity and breakthroughs - his stints include working at Nike (where he was the catalyst behind this ad spot), ESPN and Starbucks (his words adorn coffee cups everywhere). His main message was to "resign as an adult" (we actually had to raise our hands and swear) and use your "eyes of a child" to turn ideas into reality. A breath of fresh air.

I also enjoyed 2 sessions on Gen Y. Amy Lynch of Bottom Line Conversations talked about retaining Gen Y workers by understanding their expectations ("paying your dues" versus "learning") and providing opportunities for career and skills growth through lattice/lateral moves. Marie Artim of Enterprise-Rent-A-Car shared her company's approach to giving new college hires what they value - location, career paths (ERAC has a nice interactive career map that explains this) and training.

Of course, I also enjoyed hanging out with industry notable such as Mark Mehler of CareerXroads, Joel Cheesman of Cheezhead and Danielle Zittel of ERE (who incidently got her job through Experience- yay!), all of the other recruiters that we met over the 2 unbelievably packed days at our booth, as well as my fabulous colleagues from Experience.

That said, I am glad to be back in Boston, where it is finally spring!

ERE Spring - Excellent.....Really Excellent

This week I traveled with some of our sales team to the ERE Expo 2008 Spring conference in San Diego. We exhibited at this particular ERE event for the first time and it was really fabulous. Unlike the scores of trade shows I've been to in the past, they arranged exhibit hours around lunch and post session cocktails so we really had a captive audience. We met with recruiters from companies like, United Airlines, American Eagle Airlines, DaVita, Nike, Apple, Blue Cross Blue Shield and many more.

The event was two-days of sessions on all of the emerging industry trends like Workforce Planning; Employment Branding; Building Your Brand by Identifying and Sharing Stories. Branding was a huge topic discussed in the sessions and on the show floor. Over two days my colleagues (Tony Lopes, Todd Poires, Chris Hardy) and I met with more than 100 contacts and all of them wanted to talk about branding. Penelope Trunk of the Brazen Careerist presented on 'What Generation Y Really Wants, and the Barriers to Giving it to Them' where she detailed misconceptions about the generation and strategies for hiring them.

We didn't get to participate in the sessions but she generated a lot of buzz on the trade show floor with her session. The premise of her presentation is that they are far more serious and conservative than previous generations. We couldn't agree more. There has been a lot of talk over the past 2 years about 'Helicopter Parents' hovering over their young adult children, making their decisions for them. This generation is very cautious and do rely on their parents and others to help them navigate major decisions in their lives, but they do make their own choices. Part of the issue is that they are faced with more choices than any other generation (from tooth paste - to- brand of clothing) but that's another post entirely.

If you attended the show and would like to share your thoughts, please post a comment. If you weren't there and have questions about what you missed, let us know!! Following are some pictures from the event. We had a great time and look forward to exhibiting at the ERE show next fall in Florida!

Hopping Around

In yesterday's Boston Globe, an interesting article by Penelope Trunk covered a trend that's becoming increasingly popular in these trying economic times: job hopping. Simply titled "Job hopping an option for young people" (read the full article here), Trunk tries to make the case for the belief that the best thing a millennial can do early in his career is to move around -- a lot -- so he can figure out what he's good at and what he likes.

As a Gen X'er, I'm not that far removed from the 20-somethings who have just begun their careers or are about to graduate and enter the workforce. I don't know about you, but this advice seems pretty backwards when compared to what my college career counselors preached. And it's certainly the opposite of what my parents drilled into me when I was first starting out.

Trunk thinks that companies get more passionate work out of people who are in their first two years, vs. those who have been there a while (i.e., those who have grown complacent) and plan to stay longer. I can understand that argument, even with the employer examples she cites, but I'm still not sold on the idea.

Do you think job hopping is a good idea for people who are just beginning their careers? Do people who hop build their network faster, build their skill set faster and become more engaged in their work -- ultimately making them more desirable?

Food for thought.

Photo by myriorama

Interns: Strategic Pipeline or Extra Resource?

Internships are all the buzz these days in the recruiting world. A lot of companies have told us that they are using their internships programs as feeders to their full-time hiring. Makes sense, doesn't it, especially if you are a large company and have one of these programs already up and running.

But what if you're a small company without a lot of resources to create and manage interns? Well, I never would have believed it myself until this happened at our company (we have about 100 employees).

We hired two interns in the fall of 2006 and they worked with us for most of the academic year. And this February, when we had a entry-level position open up, one of them naturally got the job. (1) We had already worked with her and thought she was great. (2) She is graduating this May so timing was good for both of us. And (3) we knew that she would get up to speed so much faster since she had already spent nearly a year with us.

Never in a million years would I have predicted things would work out so nicely. So yes our intern was a extra set of hands when our projects blossomed but having this pipeline (albeit two) of solid, tested talent really did make the urgent task of recruiting so much easier.

Download some tips that we gathered on how to recruit and manage an effective internship program.

Photo by Yodel Anecdotal

The USA Needs Help...!

During last week's Future Workforce Solutions Summit, hosted by ITT in Orlando, I was expecting to hear "the usual" from employers -- they are having a difficult time recruiting skilled talent, they have far more jobs than appropriate candidates, they're not sure how to use Web2.0 tools to their advantage, etc etc etc...

What I didn't expect was the eye-popping, red-flag-raising, three-alarm emergency that is facing our country's major employers: the lack of science, technology, engineering, math & manufacturing (STEM) talent coming out of US schools.

For a real wake-up call, check this out...

I also wasn't expecting the incredibly creative ways that our country's leading organizations are putting aside competition, and are instead choosing to collaborate to solve the problem together. The FutureWorkforceSolutions coalition is harnessing the power of Boeing, Schlumberger, NASA, Intel, AT&T, Dell, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others are organizing mentoring networks, funding education programs in high schools, finding ways to highlight role models for women interested in science, and lobbying our government to shape legislation that will invest in our education system -- and reduce the large-and-growing gap between the skills that our students are acquiring and those that our employers need.

These leaders realize that today's struggle to recruit skilled talent is just the tip of the iceburg... and that it's a much bigger issue than any single organization -- or government -- can solve on its own.

I'd love to hear your ideas for how schools, employers and the government can work together to give the next generation the experience needed to be successful... Thoughts?

Workforce Development Needs Experience

Once upon a time, Bill Gates was a young entrepreneur. And as a man with a knack of combining technical expertise with business savvy, he knows -- very well, mind you -- this simple principle: success comes when opportunity meets preparation.

Last week, Gates gave a speech on Capitol Hill addressing the future of innovation, U.S. competitiveness and the need for improvements in science education.

Here's an excerpt:

"Although IT skills are in high demand, it can often be difficult for qualified job seekers with limited experience to connect with potential employers. To address this challenge, Microsoft recently launched the Students to Business (S2B) program, which is designed to help companies connect with and hire talented university or post-graduate students for jobs or internships in the technology industry. Through the S2B program, Microsoft collaborates with universities and businesses to provide students with specialized IT training and internship opportunities and helps match qualified job candidates with open positions at thousands of Microsoft partner companies so that students are able to find the right job for their IT capabilities. Microsoft S2B also helps match students to internships. Because IT professionals who have had one or more internships as students tend to secure better jobs when they enter the workforce, the S2B program provides IT students with a range of opportunities to build their experience and strengthen their resumes.”

The bottom line? Finding candidates who have practical work experience is a challenge in the technology sector. As professionals in career services, we need to ensure that we match our standout students with the best opportunities possible. Doing this will ultimately strengthen our nation's competitiveness and world position in the development of emerging technologies.

Check out the Microsoft S2B microsite, developed by Experience, for more information: http://s2b.experience.com/.

Photo by Esparta

One Salad Does Not Fit All

I was standing in line yesterday at my favorite lunch place where you can order just about any kind of salad you want. On one side of me stood a tall guy (who I will from now on refer to as "tall guy") and his friend was on the other side (to differentiate him from his buddy, let's call him "short guy", even though he wasn't really short). I offered to let the two of them stand next to each other, but they were happy just where they were. They then proceed to talk over my head so there was no way I could possibly avoid eavesdropping on their conversation:

Short Guy asks Tall Guy, "What are you getting for lunch?"

Tall Guy responds, "I am freestylin', I always freestyle" (which in the lingo of this salad place means he will tell them what ingredients to put into his salad).

"Not me," says Short Guy. "I always mess it up. I end up mixing blue cheese with eggs, and it comes out tasting terrible. So I just order the chicken caesar all the time."

I walked away from this interchange thinking - wow, here's place specifically for people to create their own lunch and this guy chooses not to, he prefers a "packaged" lunch.

This is the case with recruiting as well since it involves people, and people have unique tastes, needs, values and preferences. It points to how diverse we all are, that there is no exact solution that works for everyone. If something as simple as a salad is this complex, what does that mean for recruiting?

What it clearly tells me is we need recruiting programs (structured interview processes, formal training, mentoring) that meet the needs of the majority, but that we also need to be flexible and add small touches or flourishes that are personalized (special coaching sessions, training outside the formal program) to address both types - the ones that want the pre-packaged job solution and those that want to "make it up as they go".

Photo by double.reed

Music Lessons

As a big fan of pretty much all things related to music, I like to keep tabs on the industry itself. And as most of you probably know, the music industry has taken a beating with the increasing popularity of new media including online downloading and file sharing.

Instead of falling back on the traditional way of doing things (and suffering with the rest of the industry), artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have effectively embraced the web. Check out this Washington Post story on Radiohead and this TechDirt article on Nine Inch Nails for some interesting insight on how they're leveraging innovative online methodologies to not only engage their fans (the majority of whom are in their 20s and 30s) but stay "competitive" in a changing landscape.

As Generation Y makes their way through college and ultimately out into the workforce, we could learn a thing or two from the evolving trends of the music business. Experience recently issued a report outlining the top five trends in 2008 for managing Gen Y, and a key takeaway to stay relevant in the eyes of 20-somethings is the significance of evolving hiring and retention strategies. Millennials are the most technically savvy group of workers that organizations have ever seen. And if employers evolve as their employees evolve, the end result will be a more dynamic and competitive organization where knowledge is shared, action is taken quickly and new avenues are opened.

It's time to face the music.

Photo by Bob Jagendorf

Time to Stand Out

I was reading a marketing article today about how to make your brand stand out and it occurred to me that this applies directly to employment branding too. Basically if you swap out your logo on a job posting, replace it with your competitor's and you can't tell the difference, you have a problem! That means your job/company description is so generic that you haven't given the jobseeker any particular reason why they should pursue an opportunity with your organization.

We recently conducted a survey with Millennials to find out what they liked and didn't like about job postings. Most told us that job descriptions focused on qualifications and requirements - what companies want from applicants - and not enough on how the candidate benefits from working there - training, professional development, new skills etc.

Is it time to change the content of the traditional job description?

Download the findings and tips.

Photo by IaRuth

AOEP and BBI at Bentley College.....say what?

Experience had a great opportunity to sponsor an event at Bentley College last week hosted by Association of Employment Professionals and it was really interesting! This was a half-day professional development event for recruiters who have a focus on college recruitment and attracted more than 90 recruiters from all around New England.

(This is Michael Collins, Vice President of Corporate Sales here at Experience helping with set up before his kicking off the events with his opening remarks.)

The theme of the event was Best Practices for College Recruiting, and it featured Scott Weighart, author (Organizational Behavior In Action; The Comprehensive Guidebook for Co-op Survival) and a Cooperative Education Faculty Coordinator, Information, Operations and Analysis for Northeastern as the first speaker. He presented on Behavior Based Interviewing techniques for employers. BBI is a strategy where the interviewer forms questions to discover how the interviewee behaves under certain circumstances. So for instance, asking the candidate to provide details about the most stressful day in his or her last internship and how he or she handled it. Scott provide some practical tips on using behavioral based interviewing to help predict how a candidate will behave in the future and fit within an organization.

The second session was a panel of career services officers—including Kimberly DelGizzo, Director, and Associate Dean of the College from Brown University; Mark Savage, Director of Engineering Recruitment from Cornell; and Wendy D’Ambrose, Director of the Graduate Center for Career Services from Bentley College—who discussed strategies for recruiting college students and recent graduates.

The key theme repeated during the panel and throughout the morning was “branding.” Both the university staff and the employers in the audience seemed to be in agreement that branding your company, the culture and more are all critical components to a successful college recruitment program. Hmmmm, I think we have been saying something similar here at Experience for a while now.

Special thanks to Mike Vangel, President, Association of Employment Professionals for coordinating this wonderful event.

Bright Spots, Big Companies

We were again very fortunate to have Dr. Phil Gardner of Michigan State University speak to our school clients this year. For those of you who don't know "Dr. Phil," he is absolutely brilliant and really knows his stuff when it comes to college recruiting trends. So what did we learn from him this year? The good news is 56% of employers have firm plans to hire, and bachelors hiring is up 7%.

Bright spots that you can direct your students to: large companies (greater than 4k employees) - they are expected to increase jobs by 9-10% - and small companies (less than 100 employees). Yes, don't overlook those small growth companies in your local area; they will be a good source of jobs this year. Areas to avoid? Anything to do with housing/construction and mortgages - unfortunately the fallout is not over yet.

For employers, since entry-level hiring remains relatively strong, expect the same competitive environment you faced in the fall, and keep up the good work, whether it's outreach, branding, career fairs etc.

Anyone see anything different out there?

Photo by MSU

Making a Case for Alumni Career Services

As a relatively young alumnus of Ithaca College ("relatively" meaning I graduated during Bill Clinton's first term), I consider myself an engaged member of the greater IC community. Sure, I contribute to the school financially, but I also contribute time... time spent attending admissions fairs for interested high school juniors and seniors, time spent reading up on the latest goings-on in the alumni magazine and time spent helping current students and recent grads find their footing as they launch their careers.

Last month, I attended Ithaca's Network Nights in Boston. Network Nights, annual events that are scheduled regionally at the end of the winter break, are primarily for students to meet alumni who are working in their field of interest... but an added bonus is that alumni get to network with each other. This year's event was especially useful for me, considering I joined Experience a year ago. In addition to talking to a number of current students about how I made the transition from college to radio to grad school to marketing, I was able to network with fellow alumni. And in my networking, I wore my Experience hat and talked about career services. True to what I've read and heard, the young alumni I spoke with consider post-graduation career guidance a MUST.

Just this past Sunday, our own Cliff Libby (VP of University Sales and Services) and Laura Denbow, Executive Director of Alumni Relations and Career Services at Bucknell University, gave a compelling presentation at the CASE District I Conference in Boston covering alumni career services and the opportunity to build long-term relationships with alumni. The long and short of it? The institution is the natural and preferred career resource for alumni.

Schools have a unique opportunity to foster stronger, longer-lasting relationships with new graduates by helping them uncover careers and employer searches. As alumni progress through their careers and gain invaluable experience and expertise in their fields, they remain loyal to their alma maters (case in point = me) and often prefer hiring candidates from their schools. And this puts alumni relations and career services professionals at the center of the relationship.

This Time It's Professional

Today is Super Tuesday so I'm going to share an interesting college voting stat with you. In an Experience poll last December, 67% of college students thought a new president would not affect their career.

While I can definitely see their point of view, I can't help but wonder, have they really thought about it?

Consider the impact that government (and specifically elected leaders) can have on trade, immigration, or even the economy. And how will these issues affect employment prospects now and longer term?

So for those of us working with students, let's make them aware of how their vote could affect their careers.

Photo by Bolobilly

You Never Know

I was going to start off our blog with a tidbit about the Super Bowl since that's what everyone in Boston is commiserating about today, but an article in the local newspaper caught my eye.

It's about a guy who was a waiter at a Bermuda resort, that impressed an Endicott College administrator who was staying there SO MUCH that he was offered a full 4-year scholarship!

Here was someone who dropped out of school and was working as a hotel waiter, yet he did the best job that he could at the job that he had - delivering friendly, impeccable service - and he got noticed.

It just goes to show that you never know how the next person you talk to (or wait on) may be able to help you and how bringing your "A" game to work, no matter what work you do, matters. This applies to just about all of us - a chance encounter could bring a new employer to campus, a perfect candidate to hire, or a new contact with great ideas...

Welcome to the First Ever Blog Focused on Bringing Universities and Employers Together

We at Experience thrive on conversation, community and collaboration and we love to engage schools and employers in thoughtful dialogue on interesting topics. So we’ve created this blog to do just that – launch ideas and discussion.

In this blog, Erin, Mark and I, plus guest bloggers, are going to keep you updated on what’s happening in the college/alumni recruiting industry, and (hopefully) entertain you along the way.

Got a suggestion or some interesting news you'd like to share? Email us at launchpad@experience.com.