Ah, the glory days of college: the tailgating, the frat parties, and, of course, the rigorous academic work you told your mom you took very seriously. The study sessions might be over and the RAs may be long gone, but recruiters are still living their own versions of the dorm lifestyle — even though they’ve moved off-campus. Check out these six throwbacks to dorm life that recruiters experience all the time:
Pulling all nighters
Eating junk food, flipping through stacks of paper, and lounging around on lousy furniture until 3 a.m.? You may have thought those days were over after cramming for that last chemistry final, but recruiters who haven’t embraced talent acquisition software still get stuck at the end of a career fair combing through hundreds of paper resumes in some hotel room with a mini fridge stocked with $12 chips-in-a-can. Do your REM cycle a favor and use event management software to speed up the process.
Meeting your neighbors
A key dorm life experience was moving into a floor filled with young, eager cohorts excited to meet new people and share common interests. It’s just like attending a career fair as a recruiter: you get a chance to bond with dozens of fresh and unique minds, finding the perfect fit for their unique skill set.
Binging on the meal plan
Remember how your dorm room was stocked full of ramen, macaroni and cheese and other microwavable combinations of noodles and water? And how you skipped the meal plan one semester, mooching off your roommate’s card to get swiped into the dining hall’s buffet of never-ending pizza, ice cream, and that salad bar you tried once? Time to pay it forward.
One of the best ways to stay engaged with your talent community is to network one-on-one with your candidates. Show interest in your top talent by getting to know their personality and career goals over a cup of coffee — or, if they’re truly a broke college student, a square meal.
Ready to head back to college for this fall’s recruitment events? Get a head start by downloading our Essential Campus Career Fair Checklist! [/vc_cta]
New experiences
Meeting everyone on your floor inevitably opened the door to all sorts of things you were never exposed to before college; some good, some not so good. Living with strangers and binging Netflix? Good! “Jungle juice” and the guy down the hall learning to play acoustic guitar with the door open? Not so good. Carry those memories forward as a recruiter by offering your talent a great candidate experience. Things like poor communication and job applications that can’t be filled out on a phone can end up causing bigger headaches for your candidates than your neighbor’s s fiftieth rendition of “Crash into Me.”
Worrying about student loans
You could place a hundred candidates this week and you’d still be paying them off.
Making lifelong friends
Like your bunk mates at summer camp, living in close quarters for semesters on end can forge friendships that last for the rest of your life — or, at least until you move into an off-campus apartment. Good recruiters know that forming positive relationships with talent can take significant time and energy, but can pay off tremendously in the long run when a well-nurtured candidate gets placed in the perfect position.
Make the most out of your time on campus by downloading Yello’s “How to Maximize Your Campus Career Fair Experience” for more tips, tricks, and advice!
