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Graduate recruitment process

Jackie

Morning all - it's Friday!

Each year we attend university careers fairs with the aim of attracting graduates for our two year graduate programme.  Last year we attended as usual and were handed 250+ CV's.  We have two graduate vacancies advertised and have emailed all 250 students and have only had one application.

I appreciate, due to slow management decisions, we are very late making contact and the majority will already have planned or started their career elsewhere.

We're about to book the next round of careers fairs for the Autumn and I'm wondering if we'd have better results using specialist websites and social media.  I'd appreciate your views on whether you think this is the way forward.  Do you have any experience of sites such as Gradsouthwest?

Thanks

Jackie

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  • You will have better results following up immediately - the delay using whatever method you have will signal to any decent candidate that you are not interested. Its a huge disengagement factor.

    Attraction isn't really the issue as you got 250 CVs for only 2 jobs - process is.

    In the current climate that's a great ratio....

    I would probably go to the fair again, alternatively just used LinkedIn and see what I attracted, or just contact a couple of local universities.
  • in reply to Keith
    Thank you Keith. I agree. I think attending and not following up is worse than not attending. The issue over the past couple of years has been that we attend the fairs with no vacancies signed off, so then it can be a few months before we know what our exact graduate requirement is. I will propose that we attend the two local fairs and work on improving our online profile for this year. For next year we will sort out the process and get the recruitment signed off before the local Autumn fairs so that we are in a position to shortlist and invite to interview before the Christmas break.
  • in reply to Jackie
    Hi Jackie

    Possibly, it might be far better to forget about for the time being inconvenient facts like not being signed-off and get on promptly with preliminary sifting of applicants into a 'long list' - no matter at this stage exactly how many vacancies (or even none at all) ultimately get formally approved.
  • in reply to David
    Hi David, we have sorted by degree subject those that applied through the latest careers fairs and have made contact with them all. The issue we have is that it has taken several months for managers to come to a decision on whether they want to recruit this year and we have had little if any info to give to the graduates to keep them interested.
  • in reply to Jackie
    Hi Jackie... I wonder whether we should move your thread to the Careers Clinic (open to non-members) to see if we can draw on the experience of some recent graduates? What do you think?
  • in reply to Steve Bridger
    Hi Steve, yes that would be helpful. I'm aware that the process needs speeding up but would also like ideas on websites that graduates are accessing. We're currently using university careers sites, our own website and LinkedIn.
  • in reply to Jackie
    University Careers Sites and LinkedIn are good places to start.

    I would probably look at Instagram if you can - especially if you can get some good visual content from your current graduates.

    Another useful approach could be running a chat on twitter/facebook/google hangouts/WhatsApp etc. to allow candidates to ask questions about the process etc. The platform doesn't matter so much as providing the opportunity, advertising it and managing the chat well.

    One thing that also works well is getting current graduates and scheme alumni involved in the design of the programme and recruitment process to use their thoughts about what works and also help potential recruits meet those who have been there.
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  • in reply to Jackie
    University Careers Sites and LinkedIn are good places to start.

    I would probably look at Instagram if you can - especially if you can get some good visual content from your current graduates.

    Another useful approach could be running a chat on twitter/facebook/google hangouts/WhatsApp etc. to allow candidates to ask questions about the process etc. The platform doesn't matter so much as providing the opportunity, advertising it and managing the chat well.

    One thing that also works well is getting current graduates and scheme alumni involved in the design of the programme and recruitment process to use their thoughts about what works and also help potential recruits meet those who have been there.
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