Who is brave enough…

Analyising some recent data and stats my orgnaisation uncovered some scary information for all the internet job boards and soem great news for the Universities and that is job boards cost a huge amount of money and the cost per hire (unless you are a volume recruiter) is not pretty. Whereas on campus activity deleivers a far better return (when well managed).

The question/challenge  I want to lay down is which graduate recruiter is brave enough to dump all their job board activity and focus instead on activity on campus – working directly with students.

There is another benefit of doing this and that is considerably less time spent wading through piles of Cvs of which, if they have come from job borads, most will be rejected at the first stage.

It will require real guts to make this decision – the job boards won’t like it and nor will the media agencies but then I would say to them the challenge with any organisation (mine included!) is to keep evolving and make sure you are offering a service that works.

But back to the graduate recruiters themselves…who is brave enough & who dares to be different?! 

Student apathy or timing, timing, timing?

Having set about organising a national student conference for Bright Futures, where students can network with major graduate recruiters and build their skills AND where their travel expenses, accomodation and food are all paid for, and yet still we struggle to get all of them involved or having committed some then drop out, has caused me much frustration and many sleepless nights.

Once my initial frustration subsided I started thinking about why we could not secure the consistent commitment of all those who showed initial interest? And my deductions were that however relevant or important you think or believe something is and / or indeed the stduents themselves know it is – if the timing is not right then they won’t do it – not because they are not interested but they, understandably, have different priorities at different times.   In our case, their career cannot always be their number one priority to them, even if it is for us!

So what’s the answer? The truth is I don’t know for certain but perhaps it lies in understanding that if you want to help others (in this case students) don’t expect them to take it however that help comes just because it is ‘help’ - that help still has to be right for them and that includes the timing of delivering the events and actvities.

Whether services or help come at a charge or are free, when that help is offered matters and not everyone will change their schedules.

Rant over and it helped me deal with my frustration! Thanks to my blog!!