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.