Recruiting Students: Success Tips for Employers

As commencement approaches, many graduating students are already well into the job search, hoping to land a position at a top company in their field. Some, even before they walk across the stage to receive their diplomas, will have already been hired.

It’s not a one-way process. Even as students are looking for jobs, companies are also looking for their next hires. Business, engineering, and technological skills are in high demand. Capitol graduates have those sought-after skills.

What should companies do to connect with our graduates?  As Capitol’s director or career development and students success, I’ve been in a position to observe some of the ways in which productive student-employer relationships are forged. Here are a few strategies that can help you, the company in need of qualified personnel, link up with students who would make a good fit.

Build your brand-awareness on campus for a higher applicant pool!

As a college student, I loved the TV show Bones. My interest in the show influenced my decision to major in forensic anthropology. The show had, in effect, served as effective branding for the field.

We all make decisions based on perceptions and branding.  At Capitol, many of our students begin their first year of school with a clear idea of what company they want to work for when they graduate. Many want to work for NASA or SpaceX, based on notoriety and news coverage. Others want to work for the DoD, FBI, NSA, CIA, or other related agencies based on their observations from shows and movies such as Quantico, Mission Impossible, or Criminal Minds.

These are all exciting, rewarding places to work. It’s part of my job, though, to encourage students to know all of their options and make fully informed, educated decisions about their future careers. Simply deciding on a career because you’ve seen a TV show isn’t enough.

For employers there’s also an important lesson here: building a strong brand helps attract talent.

At Capitol, we do our part to help get the word out. I spend a good amount of time with students exploring their interests and raising their awareness about the range of companies and organizations that may be interested in their skills.

We also often invite employers to speak directly to the students. In the past few Career Conferences, we have had representatives from CIA, KeyW, OneWeb, CSRA (which is now General Dynamics Information Technology), Tensley Consulting, IRS, ICF International, and many other companies speak directly to the students to give them a good idea of what the reality of their industries look like. Companies will also provide students with assistance in key areas that will help their job search and career development, presenting on topics such as networking, federal resume composition, and other related topics.

Any employer attending the Career Fair during the Career Conference is invited to speak to the students. We have found that employers who speak during the conference have a heightened brand awareness on campus and see a higher number of applicants.

Engage with the campus community to find hidden talent!

The Career Conference is not the only time that you can meet our students. We are happy to host, free of charge, any recruiting event you would like to host on our campus. If you want to host an on-campus workshop, a luncheon, an online event or workshop, or another related activity, we can help you plan and execute that event.

There are other ways to partner with the university. If you have case-studies that are non-classified that you would be willing to share with our faculty, we can integrate those into our courses. We can co-host events such as hack-a-thons, app development competitions, capture the flag events, or other events where you can see our talent display their abilities first-hand. We can hook you up with a club on campus to co-host an event, or we can connect you to the department chair for a specific major if you want to host a specific session, connect with a specific research lab on campus, or just speak about what skillset you need and how we can help our talented students learn more about those subjects.

If you are hoping on large scale recruiting, we have also hosted full-day recruiting events on campus for employers seeking further engagement with the students.

Start early to catch many of the talented candidates before your competitors!

Not all, but many of our top-talented students are fully employed before reaching senior year. We encourage employers to consider internship or co-op opportunities freshman and sophomore year or to recruit students for full time positions around junior year. We do not hold almost any classes on Friday so that students can pursue internships or co-ops on Fridays. In many of our degree programs, junior and senior level classes are offered online and at night to allow our students to work full-time during the day.

We often encourage our students to pursue degree conferral in associate degrees while they pursue their bachelor’s degrees so they can begin working full-time. We start teaching practical skills to our students during their first semester, so all of our students have the skillset to work in their field by the time they reach their junior year.

Are you currently seeking candidates?

If you are currently seeking candidates from our class of 2018, we still have a few students who are actively seeking opportunities. We host a bi-weekly online job search club where I actively work with these students to find opportunities. If you would like to visit that club meeting, or if you would like to register for our online job board and gain access to our online resume book, please contact me.

What should you do to engage our students and alumni?

Contact me for ways to build your brand awareness on campus, to connect to the campus community, and to connect to the talent at Capitol. At any time of year, I am happy to assist you in identifying talented candidates to fill your open positions. Please email me at careers@captechu.edu and I am happy to help you connect!

By Sarah Alspaw, Director of Career Development and Student Success
Capitol Technology University