Finding and Recruiting the perfect bright young candidates 

In today’s market, there is an abundance of candidates, but it is no easier now than it was in the late 90s to come up with a solution to finding and recruiting the perfect bright young candidates.

Curveballs are a constant in the annual hunt for ideal undergraduate and graduate candidates. A few years ago, the challenge was established companies, or “employment brands”, pitted against Dot-Com start-ups.

Today, fiascos like we’ve seen in the past, make building a case for your company’s employment brand much more difficult. And there is always the age-old battle between you and your competitor recruiting two or more of the same candidates.

In the end; you end up racing against the clock – trying to get an offer out to your “prototype” candidate before it is too late and your competitor has snatched her/him up.

But regardless of any market condition, there is a simple solution; spearheaded by a single concept that greatly increases your chances of coming out on top – year in and year out.

The key to finding ideal candidates for your firm is to discover what your ideal candidates need and want to know about a job opportunity, and then clearly communicate to them how your firm fulfills their expectations. This can be done by following a clear, simple methodology.

Think to Balance the Equation
Candidates immersed in school are on the outer banks of discovering what job titles mean and companies’ have to offer. It is one thing for a student to study computer science, marketing, or accounting, and develop fundamental skills that serve as the clay for a company to mold; but after shedding the cap and gown, it is an entirely new arena.

The computer science student must understand why Advanced Semiconductor meets his or her short- and long-term career goals over Intel. The marketing student must understand why working at Proctor & Gamble provides a better future than Carlson Marketing.

The accounting star must decide if Andersen or Ernst & Young will keep his or her career in the black. It doesn’t matter who you are recruiting – for the student it is like trying to decipher a hundred directional signs at a Czechoslovakian train depot. They all will know how to set up their gaming computer, but will they also understand how to work with a business computer and related software?

Candidates have no research budget, archaic resources, company facades, and a full-time commitment to earn the grades that will gain the notice of company recruiters contribute to an unbalanced equation. To learn more, go to this interview with IGE President Steve Salyer about all the opportunities the secondary gaming market is offering.

Granted, Web resources, such as Wetfeet.com, Vault.com, and CareerChase.net, are empowering candidate research efforts by providing easy, free access to centralized information for career and company research, the equation is still unbalanced. Finding a job and career is nothing like acing classes from General Eds through upper-division, and graduate levels, students have had practice in that arena for at least 16 years, and great grades to do not transcend to career readiness.

The most adept students have great grades, interned at least once in their area of interest, and have developed some understanding of which career path and industry is most appealing to them.

On the other hand, a recruiter’s job is to know the ideal candidate from every angle so, during face-time, decisions can be made based on a keen sense of what your company is looking for. Empowering the candidate, with the same level of knowledge on your company as you have of your ideal candidate facilitates a natural magnetism between you, your company, and the ideal candidate pool. Helping your target candidates navigate this process will consistently cultivate the best candidates for your firm.