Based on last week’s post, Advantages of Hiring Students and Recent Graduates, you know you should be taking a good, long look at promising students and recent graduates, but how do you go about hiring them, especially when so many other companies are vying to do the same? Here’s some tips and tricks to getting those fresh-faced new employees through your doors.

Where to find students and recent graduates

How do you find students and recent graduates? There’s plenty of places you can look, either for short-term or long-term gain. Keep in mind that you can and should develop relationships with various departments and offices to maintain access to these prospective employees every year.

• Make your presence known by hosting a booth at career fairs. This will increase your exposure to the world, and will let you meet those who are actively searching for a job, which means they’ll reach out to you and not the other way around.
• Become familiar with college career centers, host student talks, create work-credit agreements, and post on notice boards to take advantage of having ready-made areas to attract new employees. And, just as an aside, a good way to get people to remember you is to bring in free goodies since everyone likes the freebies.
• Check out the relevant departments at colleges and universities close to your office since they can point out the best students suited for your company, or will be able to pass along the message that you’re hiring.
• Host internships so that you can bring in students and recent graduates to see if they’re a good fit for your company without having to spend a lot.
• Create job postings specifically tailored to students and recent graduates or make sure to state that you are looking for them to apply.
• Post the job openings on the social media sites they’re most likely to use (blogs, Twitter, FB, etc.), or try using entry-level job boards.
• Check out professional or certification organizations (Editors’ Association, CPA, etc.) to see if you can post in their newsletter, or if they have any recommendations on rising stars.

How to bring students and recent graduates on board

With so many other companies wanting to hire students and recent graduates, you need to provide incentives or at least differentiate yourself from the pack to bring them on board.

• If you are a big enough company, you can try to offer perks, like a new cell phone and plan for each employee, or offering massages every six months. Whatever you can afford, and feel comfortable offering, will most likely be well received by the majority of the employees since it shows you care about them.
• Encourage flexibility if you don’t need employees to work the standard 9-5 in the office. Maybe you can offer to let them work from home, even occasionally, or work hours more convenient to them.
• Offer competitive salaries, even at the entry level. Don’t assume that students and recent graduates will take the highest offer, but make sure yours is at least in the right ballpark. If they have multiple offers, the first to go will most likely be the company not recognizing or paying their worth.
• Don’t assume the university name means you’ll get the best. There are people who coast by no matter which school they attend, so remember to pay attention to the individual, and not the institution.
• Take note of their degree, but don’t base everything on that since people take minors or other classes for interest and might have cross-discipline talents. Ask questions about interests, clubs, and other classes they might have taken to get a better idea of the person you’re thinking about hiring.
• Ignore the lack of experience since no one in school or fresh out will have a lot. The whole point of hiring a student or recent graduate is to bring in fresh blood.
• Try to host or at least get involved in community events and practice your altruism by participating in charities or matching donations. If you care about more than your profit margins, then people are more likely to want to work for you.

With all of these handy tips, hopefully you can take advantage of how great, but sometimes under-appreciated, students and recent graduates are and start hiring some awesome new talent. You don’t have to use everything listed, but even one of two will help you on your way.