This is the ninth entry in a nine part series on how corporate recruiters should use cell phone text messaging (SMS) as part of their college recruiting strategy. To read the entire series, either start with Part I or download our free recruiting white paper on the same topic.

Conclusion

Thanks to the increased popularity of text messaging, today’s promising high school and college students are more accessible than ever before; however, they are being bombarded by so many advertisers that to get them interested in what you have to offer, you must be creative and speak to their interests.

Text messaging is a fast, effective way to reach a greater number of students in a shorter amount of time than in previous years. It’s also a way for you to quickly determine which students are the most promising and to establish a relationship with them so that they have your organization foremost in their minds when they finally settle down to begin submitting applications and browsing employment search engines.

As a recruiter, you have a tough job ahead of you when it comes to attracting the best students for your organization, but if you follow some of the guidelines presented in this white paper, you will be well on your way to making the best possible use of text messaging and the Internet capabilities now being provided on cell phones.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 31, 2007 at 9:23 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Today's college students and recent graduates are generally referred to as Gen Y, Millenials, or Echo Boomers. Regardless of what we call them, who are they? Are they the community focused, environmentally conscious, work to live rather than live to work people of which surveys seem to repeatedly paint a picture? Or are they money hungry, free agent job hoppers that drive retention oriented employers nuts? Well, they're both and to understand why, it is critical to understand the Rule of 7-11.

By 7-11, I'm not referring to the retail chain that makes the best frozen drink known to mankind. Nothing so sweet, unfortunately. What I'm referring to is the Rule of 7-11, which is well known to financial analysts around the world. What it basically says is that a sum of money will double in size in 11 years if it earns interest at the rate of seven percent per year. Similarly, a sum of money will double in size in seven years if it earns interest at the rate of 11 percent per year. So how does this relate to Gen Y and whether they're community focused and not primarily motivated by money or whether they hop from job-to-job whenever the employer across the street offers them even the most modest of pay increases? Everything.

Gen Y does work to live rather than live to work. They are more community focused than any generation since the GI Generation a/k/a Beat Generation -- those who were young adults during World War II. So if Gen Y wants to work for environmentally conscious companies which believe in transparency and they want a good work-life balance, why do they job hop? Because of the Rule of 7-11. The cost of college tuition is increasing at double digit rates year-after-year, so the cost to attend college is doubling very, very quickly. If the cost of attending a specific college increases at the rate of 11 percent per year, which has been pretty normal for the past couple of decades, then the cost of attending that college doubles every seven years.

Gen X'ers like me who attended college two decades ago received our education for far less money than Gen Y'ers are paying. I paid $3,500 for tuition my last year in school. If the cost of that tuition were to double every seven years, that means that today's student in that same program would pay $28,000. That's disgusting. I graduated with about $20,000 in student loan debt. A Gen Y'er following in my footsteps would graduate with $160,000 in student loan debt. Folks, this generation is being swallowed by the debt that we're allowing out-of-control higher education institutions to inflict. Gen Y job hops not because they want to and not because they don't realize the problems that it creates for their employers and for themselves, but because they have to.

College Board surveys indicate that about 40 percent of unmarried students under the age of 25 are working for pay more than 20 hours a week will enrolled in full-time post-secondary programs. The American Council on Education, Washington regards that number of work hours as hazardous as it is linked to falling grades and higher dropout rates. The average debt load upon graduation has rise to almost $20,000, which is about double what it was a decade ago. In addition to student loan debt increasing consistent with the Rule of 7-11, so are private loans and credit card debt. And the burden isn't only falling on today's students. Their parents are also paying for the inability of colleges and universities to keep the prices they charge their customers under control. According to Academic Management Services, parents are paying more than their children for the college expenses of those children.

Employers who are frustrated by losing members of Gen Y to jobs offering slightly higher pay should stop blaming Gen Y and instead start exerting pressure on this country's colleges and universities to make post-secondary education affordable again. And by affordable I don't mean making more debt easier to obtain. I mean rolling back tuition rates. I mean pressuring the schools to restrict their tuition increases to the rate of inflation or, better yet, less than the rate of inflation. I mean implementing programs like the military does under which you agree to pay for part or even all of the student loans incurred by your employees if they work for you for a certain number of years. We need to stop complaining about the problem and start helping this generation or we'll end up with the most disillusioned and frustrated generation ever rather than the most community focused generation in six decades.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 30, 2007 at 11:15 AM | Leave a Comment (1)

This is the eighth entry in a nine part series on how corporate recruiters should use cell phone text messaging (SMS) as part of their college recruiting strategy. To read the entire series, either start with Part I or download our free recruiting white paper on the same topic.

Execution and Reporting

Before sending out any text messages, consider when to send. Remember, with text messaging, real time communications can take place. A good question to ask yourself is how long you want to wait for your candidates to respond. If you’re text messaging a specific candidate, then immediate response might be desired, but for a general campaign deployed to several candidates, immediate response can become problematic.

The best time to send out targeted text messages is generally on the weekends. Students typically don’t have classes so they have more time to go through and read any messages coming in. It also means they have time to click on links or respond to calls to action.

Tracking results would be ideal in terms of helping you stay on the right track when sending out text messages. Unfortunately, because this medium is used primarily for branding purposes, results aren’t easily measured.

Still, almost all of the messages generated will be delivered and read. So, create your own list of SMS contacts and include links to your Web site. For colleges, inserting a link that will take students to an online edition of the school newspaper is a great way to introduce them to the school and its overall culture.

It might also be a good idea to incorporate feedback opportunities into each message. Students like to see that their opinions are valued. If thoughtful students are being targeted, then their opinions should matter. So give them a chance to respond to your messages by directing them to your Web site to take a small survey, answer a questionnaire or by allowing them the opportunity to submit questions of their own, which should be answered within one or two days. Be forewarned that students rarely call, email or respond for more information with text messages. It’s much simpler and more effective to take advantage of the increase in Internet availability provided on cell phones. Soon text messaging campaigns will be as commonplace as emailing and the smart marketers are preparing for it today.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 30, 2007 at 9:22 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

This is the seventh entry in a nine part series on how corporate recruiters should use cell phone text messaging (SMS) as part of their college recruiting strategy. To read the entire series, either start with Part I or download our free recruiting white paper on the same topic.

Developing a Relevant Recruiting Message

As our attention spans continue to shrink, text messaging marketers must quickly state the purpose of their SMS. Typically, they are limited to 161 characters. Since politicians the world over have moved to outlaw text messaging spam – a bill in California outlawing unsolicited text messages was recently signed by Gov. Gray Davis – major text-message marketing companies have established agreements with cell-phone carriers, said Dotinga. The cell-phone carriers don’t want their customers complaining that they’re being spammed, so the marketers are careful to send out only relevant, valuable messages to their targeted recipients.

It’s hard to gain the attention of college students because they are bombarded with marketing messages throughout the day and are continually multi-tasking with technology and gadgetry. A simple message with easy to follow calls to action are the best way to go.

There is, of course, the danger of trying to speak the language of a college student, simply put. There is no universal language for students on campus so don’t think that throwing in words or phrases like “Drop it like it’s hot” or “Fo’ shizzel” are going to make you look cool on campus. These attempts are far more likely to make an organization look like a dork, which will ensure that your recruiting efforts will fail. The best policy is to use the words of your own organization’s culture. Today’s college youth will appreciate your honesty and transparency and, therefore, will be more receptive to it.

So, how do you instill optimism in your prospective recruits? Create a dialogue. And reinforce your organization’s legitimacy throughout the year with all your marketing. Text messages provide a way to start this dialogue and keep it going throughout their college careers. Here are some tips from Campus Media Group for creating legitimacy in your messaging once you’ve gotten them to click through to your site:

• Make sure they are fully aware of how your company or school will make their lives better by stating the benefits.
  
• Provide “proof” – facts and figures that back up any claims or promises you have made.
  
• Show testimonials of previous recruits and briefly state their stories of success.
  
• Ensure that they see the value of your school/company by comparing salaries/benefits of your competition.
  
• Present a “you have nothing to lose” or “ask us anything you want to know” type invitation to prospective recruits to assure them you are waiting to hear from them.
  
• Create a sense of urgency (“Positions/applications are filling fast!”).
  

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 29, 2007 at 9:18 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Surveys indicate that about 90 percent of recent college graduates would re-locate with or without financial assistance for a good entry level job opening. But if you're a college student searching for an internship or seasonal job or a recent grad looking for an entry level career opportunity, which cities should you focus your job search efforts on? A good option is to look at the cities with the most entry level job openings. The cities with the most jobs for recent college graduates are:

1. New York, New York
2. Los Angeles, California
3. Houston, Texas
4. San Francisco, California
5. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
6. Miami, Florida
7. Chicago, Illinois
8. Tampa, Florida
9. Dallas, Texas
10. St. Louis, Missouri
11. San Diego, California
12. Atlanta, Georgia
13. Salt Lake City, Utah
14. San Jose, California
15. Boston, Massachusetts
16. Phoenix, Arizona
17. Memphis, Tennessee
18. Las Vegas, Nevada
19. Austin, Texas
20. San Antonio, Texas
21. Seattle, Washington
22. Baltimore, Maryland
23. Madison, Wisconsin
24. Albany, New York
25. Knoxville, Tennessee

Source: CollegeGrad

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 29, 2007 at 9:09 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

This is the sixth entry in a nine part series on how corporate recruiters should use cell phone text messaging (SMS) as part of their college recruiting strategy. To read the entire series, either start with Part I or download our free recruiting white paper on the same topic.

Buying a Student Cell Phone List

Buying cell phone lists is much the same process as buying email lists. Certain questions must be asked and answered to ensure that you have a list that is going to best serve your interests. It’s good to know whether a list is opt-in. Laws have already been put in place to protect consumers from being inundated with spam, so make sure your list is a good one. “The mobile industry, in an effort to maintain loyalty, has taken great pains to protect the privacy and preferences of its customers,” says Michael Becker for mmaglobal.com. Giving students the opportunity to opt-out, should they decide they aren’t interested in your product, is crucial to ensuring that your company or school doesn’t develop a bad reputation.

As someone who is paying for a list, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) applies the same as it did in regards to the purchase of email lists. Check to make sure that the people you will be text massaging willingly agreed to receive your messages. Text messaging is rarely, if ever free in the United States. “Each message that goes out in SMS space has a cost to it,” said Griffith David of Qube, a mobile messaging company, in an interview with Randy Dotinga for his article, “The Cell: It’s a Selling Machine” for wired.com. Said Dotinga, “The cost isn’t cheap. Marketing companies are charging between 10 and 35 cents each to send text messages to cell-phone users.…” More importantly, the recipient may have to pay a few cents as well, Dotinga said. Again, the message you’re sending has to have value to the candidates otherwise it’s a waste of not only time, but money.

Some list owners such as CollegeRecruiter.com guarantee to deliver 100 percent of the SMS messages, in part by frequently testing their lists to ensure that all text messages will reach their destination. Of course, numbers do change so this must be taken into account for any messages that aren’t delivered. The best way to ensure this is by checking out the history of the list and reputation of the list provider. You want to get a list that has a history of good result. If the list doesn’t produce the results the list broker promised, then take steps to replace the list with another, preferably at no additional cost.

Cell phone lists fall into three categories: opt-in, opt-out, and double opt-in. When marketers give consumers opt-in capabilities, they’re required to provide opt-out capabilities as well. The most common form of opt-out option, according to Beck, is to “have the consumer text message a designated/reserved keyword into the service, such as Stop, End, Quit, Cancel, etc., and/or have him submit his stop command via a Web form or related alternative opt-out method.”

Double opt-in lists such as the CollegeRecruiter.com targeted cell phone list are the rarest and the highest quality. Not only must the recipient ask to be added to the list, but he must also confirm that request. Since you don’t want to spend precious time worrying about whether your cell phone list is good, stick to working solely with double opt-in lists. The deliverability and response rates will be less of a concern, thereby allowing you to concentrate more on critical issues of content and creativity.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 28, 2007 at 9:16 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

This is the fifth entry in a nine part series on how corporate recruiters should use cell phone text messaging (SMS) as part of their college recruiting strategy. To read the entire series, either start with Part I or download our free recruiting white paper on the same topic.

Building Your Student Cell Phone List

Depending on the size of the company or school for which you are recruiting, building a list can be a tedious task. When dealing with SMS, you want your message to reach students who are going to be the best fit for your targeting goals and objectives. Cell phone lists and targeting strategy can be developed with the help of marketing companies like CollegeRecruiter.com and Campus Media Group. Your recruiting goals and budget depend on it. Text messaging isn’t cheap. Building a targeted cell phone list is an important step that should be considered carefully and executed precisely. These people will be the brand ambassadors for your company or school, spread the word, and, hopefully, be your future employees or students. Here are some targeting options that will help narrow your search and give you the most qualified candidates:

• School name
• School enrollment
• School location (state, county, city, postal/zip code)
• School religious affiliation
• Campus type (residential or commuter)
• Programs/majors offered
• Student profiles (race, gender, age, major, etc.)

Today’s college youth have very large extended networks. Social networking sites, instant messenger lists, blogs and other lists allow students to speak to dozens, even hundreds of their friends instantly. Utilize them to share opportunities you are offering to their friends. Encourage reposting of your opportunity, the forwarding of your text message, etc. Even if your initial prospect doesn’t feel there is a fit, he may know someone who is.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 27, 2007 at 9:14 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

CollegeRecruiter.com is proud to be a sponsor and I am proud to be a presenter at the upcoming Campus Recruiting Forum. This conference – which received tremendous reviews last December in San Francisco and last July in Chicago – will be held in Phoenix, Arizona on April 10th. As a sponsor, CollegeRecruiter.com is able to offer a $50 registration discount if you register by Friday, March 30th.

The Campus Recruiting Forum is focused entirely on increasing the skills and expertise with which companies hire students and graduates. It will feature many workshops, plenary sessions, and panel discussions in one very full day. At the Campus Recruiting Forum you will hear from leading experts from:


• Brainstorm Consulting
  
• The Human Factor
  
• CollegeRecruiter.com
  
• Employers’ Recruiting Center, Inc.
  
• TMP Worldwide
  
• Universum Communications Inc.

Whether you are an experienced recruiter or just getting initiated in the world of college recruiting, I am sure that you will find this program invaluable. Please visit www.CampusRecruitingForum.com for more information and to register online. To take advantage of the $50 CollegeRecruiter.com client discount, simply enter the code “CRC3” in the “Special Discounts” box on the registration form.

You may also wish to contact the conference convenor, Graham Donald at graham@brainstorm.ca or (250) 294-4530 with any questions you may have.

I hope to see you in Phoenix in a couple of weeks!

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 26, 2007 at 4:09 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

This is the fourth entry in a nine part series on how corporate recruiters should use cell phone text messaging (SMS) as part of their college recruiting strategy. To read the entire series, either start with Part I or download our free recruiting white paper on the same topic.

Top Ten Rules for Text Messaging Students

Text messaging has certain guidelines that should be followed to help maximize the effectiveness of the campaign. Mike Baker, writing for Mobile Marketing Association, suggests the following:

1. “Provide real value” – A student’s cell phone is his personal property and it should be respected at all times. You must use your message to entertain and inform while ensuring the relevance and value of what you have to offer.
2. “Integrate for higher impact” – The cell phone is a ubiquitous device. Smart marketing uses brief messages of no more than five or six words with calls to action that motivate students to “act now” in order to receive the best opportunities available to them.
3. ”Keep it simple” – Don’t assume that all of your target candidates are mobile literate. “Take into consideration the novice user and include specific instructions on how to respond. Mobile banner ads are a great way to gather cell phone numbers for future campaigns. Post-click actions make it easy for anyone to interact with your company and learn more about your career and internship opportunities.”
4. “Begin harvesting opt-ins --- yesterday” – As with emailing, your mobile messaging campaign is only as good as your opt-in list. Because it’s a time consuming process, it’s best to start building your list as early as possible. It’s also a good idea to add a field for capturing opt-in mobile phone numbers on your Web site, especially if you already have one for capturing email addresses.
5. “Make it social” – Besides using their mobile phones for socializing, students also like to show it off to friends, share ring tones, and photos. Again, smart marketing will use this to cultivate a mobile network and connect often with students interested in great educational and career opportunities.
6. “Map mobile mechanics to the five steps of branding – Always keep in mind the five steps of brand marketing: awareness, consideration, preference, purchase, and loyalty.” These will serve you just as well when campaigning for students and employees as it will when marketing to customers and clients. Clickable display advertising on mobile browsers will get your company noticed. Next, you’ll want to use mobile Internet sites and text messaging to keep in touch, and then provide downloadable content and text alerts to keep your school or company foremost in your candidates’ minds. Loyalty will come as a result of your always sending relevant, useful messages that keep the candidates wanting to come back for more information.
7. “Capitalize on time targeting” – With mobile marketing, the ability to target by demographic, location or time of day is unparalleled because, for now, it’s still fairly uncharted territory. Candidates can be targeted at specific times to be alerted to upcoming events or opportunities.
8. “Use rich media to make a compelling impression” – Although it’s not yet as popular as it is in Europe, mobile messaging in the United States is rapidly rising. This is especially true for picture messaging. Fifteen percent of American mobile users send picture messages. Smart marketers are taking advantage of this by developing entertaining promotional messaging that gets their brands shared with friends. This can work exceptionally well when promoting your school or company to college students.
9. “Provide instant gratification” – The greatest thing about mobile marketing is instant gratification. “Don’t reduce the power of that tool.”
10. “Look to Las Vegas” – Positive reinforcement is a great motivator. Offering candidates some kind of reward for choosing to visit your site or participate in your campaign will further increase their loyalty and word of mouth will spread your school’s or company’s name to areas it might not have reached otherwise.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 26, 2007 at 9:12 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

This is the third entry in a nine part series on how corporate recruiters should use cell phone text messaging (SMS) as part of their college recruiting strategy. To read the entire series, either start with Part I or download our free recruiting white paper on the same topic.

Campus – A Recruiting Environment

In the cafeteria, in student lounge areas, or while waiting for classes to begin, college students are busy with their cell phones. It’s not unusual to hear the tap-tap-tapping of text messages being received and sent.

On-campus recruiting is still the best way to recruit future interns and entry level employees. Employers can use the wonderful world of text messaging to send prime candidates advance notice of campus recruiting events or job and career fairs where the company will be represented.

Targeted text messaging campaigns are an excellent way to build a rapport with students and guide them to your company’s Web site where they can learn even more about what you have to offer in terms of internships and job opportunities. The truly clever, creative employer will have its text message shared with others, thereby increasing the effectiveness and extending the reach of the campaign.

Many of the more successful employers recruit from the same colleges year-after-year. They have not only built rapport with the students, they’ve built positive reputations as well. Text messages from these employers will have an advantage over the newer companies on campus, but well worded, carefully targeted text messaging campaigns can help get a newer company noticed.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 25, 2007 at 9:10 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

This is the second entry in a nine part series on how corporate recruiters should use cell phone text messaging (SMS) as part of their college recruiting strategy. To read the entire series, either start with Part I or download our free recruiting white paper on the same topic.

College Students and Text Messaging – Attitudes and Trends

College students use text messaging to communicate with friends, to vote for their favorite contestant on “American Idol,” or to learn about the latest ring tones. Companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks have already taken advantage of this medium and begun using it to market their products to one of their highest volume of customers.

College and corporate recruiters are taking notice of the effectiveness of this form of communication and incorporating it into their recruiting mechanisms. It’s an excellent way to reach even more students who may be seeking a college education or a position with a top employer.

The same rules apply to text messaging as to emailing: be creative and be legitimate. The target audience of 18 to 24 year-olds knows it’s in high demand, so take the time to learn what motivates them, and then leverage it. Text messaging isn’t cheap, so make every byte count. The message should be direct and clearly stated, even in the limited context of an SMS, and make students not only want to click on the provided link, but to share what they’ve learned with friends.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 24, 2007 at 9:05 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Today's rapidly tightening labor market is especially difficult for employers trying to recruit MBA students. Want to better understand which of your recruitment tactics and strategies are in line with the needs and wants of today's MBA students? Don't pay for your own focus group. Instead, join "The Right Job, Right Now" author Susan Strayer, CollegeRecruiter.com President and Founder Steven Rothberg, and a panel of MBA students from Vanderbilt about what turns them on.

http://collegerecruiter.com/podcast/jobhunting/

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 23, 2007 at 4:20 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

This is the first entry in a nine part series on how corporate recruiters should use cell phone text messaging (SMS) as part of their college recruiting strategy. To read the entire series, either start with this entry or download our free recruiting white paper on the same topic.

Introduction

Today’s high school and college students are always on the move. One increasingly effective way of communicating with them is through their cell phones.

Ninety percent of all college students own cell phones; sixty percent of them communicate via text messaging. As text messaging grows in popularity, the smart college and company recruiters are making use of this fast, efficient form of interaction. It has actually been determined that students communicate more with their cell phones than they do via the Internet. Their cell phones are with them everywhere they go, so there’s no hindrance to their activities. Text messages can be read and sent while riding the bus or while waiting to be served in a restaurant.

More than three-quarters of teens between 15 and 19, and 90 percent of early twentysomethings, regularly use their cell phones for text messaging (SMS). And they’re not just used for voting undesirable contestants off “American Idol” and “The Apprentice,” nor are they simply tools for marketing goods for retailers like Starbucks, Hershey, and McDonald’s. Today, text messaging is a method of communication for colleges and employers seeking serious, career-minded students who want high quality educational and employment opportunities.

Purpose

The purpose of this series of nine blog entries is to help college and corporate recruiters use this ever growing means of communication to help them recruit college students and recent graduates. It outlines how text messaging is evolving for college students into more than just a way to download the latest ring tones. It’s expanding into a means for recruiters to capture the attention of students with enticing offers of rewarding educational, internship and career opportunities.

This series is based upon a new, free white paper that was recently published by CollegeRecruiter.com and available for free download at http://www.collegerecruiter.com/pages/white-papers.php.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 23, 2007 at 8:58 AM | Leave a Comment (1)

I'm more of a feminist than many females that I know and thank goodness as I am the father of a bright and strong seven year old daughter and husband to a bright and strong wife. I joke that my sons, both of whom are older than my daughter, need to learn to be overly protective of her, but I have no doubt that she's able and will continue to be able to take care of herself along with those around her. So it was nice for me to see the Satisfying Career - Happier Life Career Blog entry by Shweta Khare that Millenial (also known as Gen Y) females are stronger and more confident than the Generation X (my generation) working females.

This new generation in the workforce would be the one of risk-takers and also those who enjoy working for what they believe in and they are the ones who not are in a job only for the money. A larger percentage of this generation has grown up in affluence as never before experienced by the previous generations. They have more direction and more access to information than ever before.

Our lives will continue to be enriched as we work to include more of those who want to work into the workplace. Gone are the days when certain elements of society were barred from the workplace because of the color of their skin, their religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or other such factors. Organizations which refuse to hire or promote people because of such factors are doomed to fail because they will suffer the loss of the most important asset any organization can possess: highly qualified, highly motivated people. I shed no tears when I see those organizations wither and die. Good riddance. Their failure is our liberation.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 22, 2007 at 7:35 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Besides learning previous job experiences and capabilities applicants have gained throughout their career, as a hiring manager it is important to get an idea of what their positive traits are that they can bring to your company. One trait that you should be focusing on during an interview is if they are good listeners.

Here are some ways to discover if they are indeed good listeners:

• Focus on their body language. Applicants should be making eye contact in addition to nodding their head and slightly leaning towards the interviewer.
  
• Ask questions. Not only does asking questions about your company mean that they have done their prep work for the interview, but if they ask follow up questions to what you have asked them, this shows that they were paying attention and show an interest in learning more.
  
• Do you feel that the company cares about you?
  
• Power of silence. Usually during an interview there are periods of silence. A good listener will be comfortable with silence and not feel the need jump in to fill the void with words.
  
• Do you feel that we provide a healthy work/life balance?
  

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 21, 2007 at 7:16 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

There will always come a time when managers will be faced with the task of firing an employee. This is an uncomfortable experience for all parties involved. Depending on the situation, firings ought to be avoided if at all possible.

To help alleviate these situations, managers should conduct regular performance reviews with their employees. During these sessions, both the manager and employee should be open and candid. First, the manager should identify the positive work that the employee is performing. If there are any areas that need to be improved, it should be addressed during that time and a plan of action to correct any problems, should be discussed.

If the employee's performance does not improve within a reasonable timeframe and if warnings have been given previously, then it may be time to let the employee go. Here are some guidelines when letting an employee go:

• Be sensitive to timing. Some feel that Mondays and Fridays are bad days. Others believe Thursday is an ideal day so employees can discuss matters on Friday and come in fresh on Monday. Firing around the holidays is typically a bad idea. At the end of the day might be a good solution since most employees will be gone and the person can gather their belongings without others watching.
  
• Have a face-to-face meeting. The meeting should be very professional. Reasons for dismissal should be explained but empathy should be expressed. Depending on the reasons for termination, you can offer to be a reference for them or even help them find a new job.
  
• Explain benefits and pay. It is important that you inform them when their last paycheck should arrive and when their benefits will end or if they have the option to continue coverage.
  
• Let them have their say. You can give them the opportunity to have their say. Be cautious since emotions are high. Depending on how they react, it is important to try and remain calm.
  To lessen any rumors that might spread, decide on a timeline and how it will be announced. Reassure your employees that it is always a difficult decision to make and that you wish the person the best of luck in their future endeavors.
  

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 20, 2007 at 8:14 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Three days remain until this Thursday's free teleseminar for employers on what MBA students want from their employers.

If your organization is losing the battle to recruit the best MBA students and recent graduates, join "The Right Job, Right Now" author Susan Strayer and me on Thursday, March 22nd from 3-4pm ET / 12-1pm PT as we hear from a panel of MBA students about what turns them on. Best of all, you'll get to ask them about what you're doing or considering doing.

Interested? A limited number of "seats" remain so email your contact information to Steven@CollegeRecruiter.com today to reserve your spot!

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 19, 2007 at 1:58 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Although the current conventional wisdom is that the healthy labor market should result in a strong job market for spring 2007 college graduates, some are cautioning that the job market for this year's grads may be tighter than in past years.

Global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. said that last week's U.S. Department of Labor report on the nation's job growth could spell trouble for the 1.3 million college students who are scheduled to graduate this spring. According to the report, the number of jobs created in February was 97,000, the smallest total in two years and down from 146,000 new jobs created in January. Compounding the weak job growth statistics were that many of the jobs added were in lowing paying health care and food service fields and that job losses surged to 33 percent, the largest jump in five months.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) projected in September 2006 that this year would see an increase in the hiring of new college graduates by 17.4 percent. Since then, however, more recent surveys of the largest employers in the nation have found more pessimism with two thirds of CEOs projecting either no increase or even a decrease in their hiring. Those predicting more hiring over the next six months fell from 37 to 33 percent. Also not helping were Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's recent remarks that the economy has a 33 percent chance of slipping into recession.

So what should students do? John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, advices students to cancel their spring break vacation plans and instead use the time to find a job. Contact hiring managers and prospective employers, Ask family and friends about job opportunities. Build your list of job leads and network, network, network. And of course, post your resume to entry level job boards such as CollegeRecruiter.com and then apply to the advertised jobs which are of interest to you and for which you're qualified. Set up job match agents (also called alerts) so that the job boards notify you by email when new positions are posted which match your interests. Then go away from the boards and don't come back unless you receive an agent email advising you of a position that looks like a great fit for your competencies, interests, and values.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 15, 2007 at 8:32 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

I serve on the board for Nechama: Jewish Response to Disaster. During a recent meeting, one of the board members commented that if you ever want to hire someone with really great customer service skills, look for someone who enjoyed working as a barista. That got me to thinking about how many college graduates are working as baristas, how they can afford to do so even if they love the work and want to remain in that field, and what their parents think about their choice of occupation.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 14, 2007 at 5:45 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

The U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best colleges are widely read by students who are trying to decide which college they should attend and employers who are trying to decide which colleges they should recruit from. Like all such rankings, the U.S. News rankings are a bit of a beauty of contest in that beauty is definitely in the eyes of the beholder. What makes one school fantastic for me might make it horrible for you. Yet the rankings have traditionally been viewed as an impartial, objective look at the schools. But are they?

Troubling news has emerged that U.S. News is just making up data that they can't obtain legitimately. For example, the president of Sarah Lawrence College is claiming that her school does not use SAT data yet U.S. News insists on including that data in its ranking system. So the way they include it is to estimate that the average student who attends Sarah Lawrence has an SAT school a little below the average student who attends comparable schools. That's definitely not objective and hardly beautiful.

If U.S. News just makes up data, then their rankings of the best colleges to attend are simply bogus. Garbage in, garbage out. Students, employers, and others should disregard the rankings put out by U.S. News. If this proves to be the case with more schools than just Sarah Lawrence, shame on U.S. News. In fact, even if it proves to be the case with just one school, shame on U.S. News.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 13, 2007 at 3:22 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Today's rapidly tightening labor market is especially difficult for employers trying to recruit MBA students. Want to better understand which of your recruitment tactics and strategies are in line with the needs and wants of today's MBA students? Don't pay for your own focus group. Instead, join "The Right Job, Right Now" author Susan Strayer and me for a free teleseminar on Thursday, March 22nd from 3-4pm ET / 12-1pm PT as we hear from a panel of MBA students about what turns them on. Best of all, you'll get to ask them about what you're doing or considering doing.

Interested? A limited number of "seats" remain so email Steven@CollegeRecruiter.com today to reserve your spot!

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 12, 2007 at 4:18 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Our developer just greatly simplified the code that blogs and other web sites need to copy and paste to their sites in order to add our 350 career videos to their sites. Now you can add the same drop down menu on our Career Video Podcasts page by copying and pasting one line of javascript into any page on your site.

This is what the drop down menu will look like on your site:

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 9, 2007 at 12:50 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

I can't imagine that the good folks over at Jobster are too happy about this, but Careerbuilder ads are still showing up pretty prominently on Facebook.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 9, 2007 at 10:32 AM | Leave a Comment (3)

A year ago at this time, many and perhaps most people in the recruiting world were buzzing about blogs. Kennedy Information highlighted recruiting bloggers at their Las Vegas recruiting conference then followed up with a "blogger's corner" at their New York conference. Jobster bought Recruiting.com then invested even more heavily in Web 2.0 by adding social networking features to Jobster, partnering with Facebook, and more. CollegeRecruiter.com built on our involvement by hiring a full-time content manager and created eight blogs for our staff, career counselors, candidates, employers, admissions counselors, financial aid experts, resume writers, and more. So are we any further? Unfortunately, no.

I believe that those of us involved in the recruiting blogosphere made a serious strategic error somewhere along the way by focusing on the features rather than the benefits of blogs. We fell in love with the ease of posting content, both to our own sites as entries and the sites of others as comments. We loved the connections that we were forging, both in the real and virtual worlds. But we forgot that we are not our target audience. Employers and candidates are our target audience and I have no doubt that the vast majority of those could care less whether an article that they're reading on Jobster, CollegeRecruiter.com, Recruiting.com, or any other site is posted to the site through an HTML page created in Frontpage, a PHP page created in Homesite, an ASP page created in Dreamweaver, or a blog page created in Movable Type.

When visitors run searches on Yahoo, Google, or the search engines on our sites, they're looking for answers. They don't care whether those answers are contained in articles posted as traditional web pages or as blog pages. They just want the answers. But we've focused too much for too long on blogs as if they're somehow different. Folks, they're not. They're easier ways to post web pages but there's nothing that they do that is inherently different than what you can do with traditionally posted web pages other than allowing you do those things faster and easier. Sure there's tremendous benefit to the publisher from that efficiency, but there's none to the visitor. They don't care whether it took you 30 minutes to code a page or three. They just care about the quality of the content.

Let's stop focusing on "blogs" as if they're somehow different from other web pages and start focusing on the content that appears on those pages. Let's stop encouraging recruiters to "blog" and instead encourage them to regularly post employment-related articles to their sites and sites such as Jobster, CollegeRecruiter.com, and Recruiting.com that accept and even welcome articles from third parties. Blogging software is great, but what makes it great is that it allows us to focus on the content by not having to focus on the technology. So let's do just that.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 9, 2007 at 8:36 AM | Leave a Comment (1)

The term "helicopter parents" has gained some prominence over the past few years to describe some parents of Gen Y young adults. These parents are always hovering over their children, hence the reference to helicopters. Rather than allowing their children to make the mistakes which are necessary for them to become independent, these parents are in constant contact with their children and make most of the big decisions for them. To compound the problem, whenever their children face adversity, they know that their parents will be at their side and that the fights will be carried out by the parents, ostensibly on behalf of their children.

Being involved in the lives of your children is good. It is healthy, normal, and desirable. But being overly involved is not good. So when is involvement healthy and when does it cross the line into being unhealthy? One question you can ask yourself is if your actions are more akin to that of a coach, which is healthy, or a fellow player, which is unhealthy. Provide structure, give advice, and serve as a role model but let your child be the player. They need to take action and they need to make mistakes. If they don't want what you want, that's okay. It is their life to live, not yours.

So how do you tell if you're a helicopter parent? Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you search college websites for your child?
   
2. Do you have a strong influence over the high school courses your child takes?
   
3. Do you play the lead role in planning and scheduling your child's activities?
   
4. Are you planning to prepare your child for campus interviews?
   
5. Do you plan on directly contacting faculty, coaches, or other individuals at the colleges your child is interested in?
   
6. Do you review the publications and other materials colleges send to your child?
   
7. Are you planning to write your child's application essays or fill out his or her college applications?
   
8. Do you meet with the high school counselor about college plans without your child present?
   
9. Do you discuss with friends or relatives colleges that might be a good fit for your child?
   
10. Have you helped your child find a job or discussed his or her future career possibilities?
    
11. Have you discussed with your child which colleges you can afford and how your family will pay for them?
    
12. Do you encourage your child to apply to certain schools or add schools to your child's list for consideration?
    

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 9, 2007 at 7:09 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Our targeted email product was just tested by list broker Eclipse DM. The results were great. We have a database of 120 million double opt-in candidates, of which 8.5 million are college students and recent graduates. We have up to 700 fields of data per candidate, so can target them by experience, school name, geography (state, county, metro, city, or zip), diversity, major, GPA, years until/since graduation, etc.

Eclipse DM had us send a test message of their choice to 200 email addresses they own so they could verify (1) if we’re able to deliver the emails and (2) if those emails end up in the spam folders or stay in the inboxes once they’re delivered. The email addresses included paid ones such as Bellsouth, Comcast, and Earthlink and free email addresses such as Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail. I’m proud to say that we delivered 100 percent of the emails into the inboxes and none ended up in the spam folders. If you'd like a copy of the report, email me.

This is a great product for employers which have large or difficult hiring needs. The minimum price is $2,250. For that, we deliver 50,000 emails. As you might suspect, the cost per thousand drops even further as the quantities increase. There’s no additional charge for additional selects, so you can really drill down to exactly the demographics that you most want.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 8, 2007 at 7:05 AM | Leave a Comment (1)

The Recruiting Animal hosted an Internet "radio" show earlier today about recruitment blogging. The Animal, as he is known to his friends, certainly isn't shy about sharing his opinions and was clearly pretty negative about recruiting blogs. A handful of callers, including yours truly, agreed with some of his opinions but tried without much success to straighten out some of his other opinions. He apparently believes the adage that blogs are written by people without anything to say for people with too much time on their hands.

Listen to the show. It is entertaining if nothing else. But there were some really good nuggets of information and opinions thrown out by some people who are pretty active and passionate in the recruiting blogosphere. My opinion? Listen for details, but I'm disappointed that there aren't more corporate recruiters who are blogging but I'm optimistic that there will be far more as Gen Y continues to move into the corporate world and up the chain of command. Once most of the Baby Boomers retire and Gen X'ers and Y'ers replace them, I believe that corporations will understand both that transparency is a good thing and that blogging is a critical piece of that. They'll understand that blogging can be both a recruitment tool by allowing candidates to better understand the people with whom they'll work and a retention tool -- if you're allowed to blog at your current employer and a prospective employer woos you but won't allow you to blog, will you be likely to jump ship?

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 7, 2007 at 5:32 PM | Leave a Comment (1)

Jason Davis of Recruiting.com recently launched a new web site, RecruitingBlogs.com. For those who have been looking for an at-a-glance look at the newest content in the recruiting blogosphere, RecruitingBlogs.com is a great, new destination. Making RecruitingBlogs.com even better is that it features links to the newest blog articles posted through the free career and recruiting content exchange program, the CollegeRecruiter.com Recruiting.com Blogswap.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 7, 2007 at 11:28 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

On March 15th, I'll have the pleasure of being the featured guest for the first of a three part series of Kennedy Information teleconferences on "Best Practices: How to Effectively Reach and Recruit the College Market." The first of the conferences is entitled, "Podcasting: A Cutting Edge Recruiting Tool to Catch Job Hunting Students."

Best Practices: How to Effectively Reach and Recruit the College Market - A 3-Part Audio Training Series with StevenRothberg Podcasting: A Cutting Edge Recruiting Tool to CatchJob Hunting Students First of three 90-Minute Audio Seminars Thursday, March 15, 2007 – 1:00 PM (EST) About  |  Register College students have never been an easy market to reach, and it's evenmore difficult to obtain a response. And while the emerging electronics fromcell phones to iTunes, social networking to blogging may help make youngpeople more accessible, these new tools can easily backfire if not used correctly. Because it's an audioseminar, you enjoy such added benefits as: A low-cost training tool A quality learning opportunity Your entire staff can participate for one low fee No lost time from the office No travel or lodging costs Opportunity for questions, and more! On March 15, Steven Rothberg, founder and president of CollegeRecruiter.com, begins a Kennedy-sponsored part audio conference series with Podcasting: A Cutting Edge Recruiting Tool to Catch Job Hunting Students. Inthis 90-minute session, Steve will make you an expert on the iPod - as arevolutionary new way to communicate with and recruit today's top college candidates.You can attend just this session, or sign on for the entire art series, as you prefer. Best of all, your entire team can attend forone low fee, making this a great, low-cost training opportunity.

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Steven Rothberg and Kennedy Information are committed to deliveringimmediately useful and relevant action ideas to participants. We guarantee that thisseminar will bring value to you and your organization or you will receive a fullrefund.

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Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 6, 2007 at 3:28 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Some of the web sites from which we buy advertising on a pay-for-performance basis through our affiliate program are running some of even all of our 333 career videos. By doing so, they're providing great, real content to their visitors. That increases the quantity and quality of their visitors and therefore the quantity and quality of the visitors that they refer to us. More and better visitors to our site translates into more and better registered candidates on CollegeRecruiter.com, which translates into us paying the affiliates more and having increased quantity and quality of candidates for the employers who use our site.

An example of one of these affiliates is itstherightway.com. They've set up a page that lists a few dozen of the videos. If you click on any of those links, you're taken to a page about one particular job. You can view the career video that we've provided to our affiliates and anyone else through YouTube. If you click through the link to CollegeRecruiter.com from itstherightway.com and request information about continuing your education, you'll receive that information for free, the school will pay us for the lead (you), and we'll pay itstherightway.com for the referral. Nice.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 5, 2007 at 7:02 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

President George W. Bush swore in retired Vice Admiral Mike McConnell recently as the nation's new spy chief. What was one of the first instructions Bush gave to McConnell? Find more recruits with the language skills and cultural background to collect information on our terrorist enemies. Both Bush and McConnell said that the nation's 16 spy agencies have a severe shortage of operatives who speak critical languages such as Arabic and Farsi.

One solution suggested by McConnell was to increase the "...hiring of first- and second-generation Americans who possess native language skills, cultural insights, and a keen understanding of the threats we face."

Another suggestion for Bush and McConnell is that they should have a closer look at the demographics of today's college students. Our targeted email database of 120 million candidates, of which 8.5 million are students and recent graduates, contains the following numbers of people with language skills:

• Arabic - 40,372
  
• Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, others) - 77,607
  
• Farsi - 10,705
  
• French - 59,859
  
• German - 32,434
  
• Italian - 40,806
  
• Korean - 40,592
  
• Portuguese - 15,173
  
• Russian - 16,917
  
• Spanish - 755,692
  

So are we already helping the intelligence agencies recruit students and recent graduates with these foreign language skills? I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 2, 2007 at 1:42 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

The new Facebook career center powered by Jobster went live today. If you have a Facebook account, go to http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2229765339. Otherwise, here's a screen capture:

You'll notice that they are spotlighting a couple of employers, profiling some candidates, showing some video, and highlighting the Jobster tagging feature. The job search engine takes you to Jobster.

Facebook is overwhelmingly used by college students so it shouldn't be terribly difficult for Jobster to show only internships and entry level jobs to those who are searching through Facebook. What will be more of a challenge down the line will be properly matching the interests of Facebook users as the demographics of those users evolves due to Facebook's push into the non-student segments of society. More and more users are not in school and some graduated years ago. I graduated 15 years ago, so if I were to use the search engine and see only internships and entry level jobs, I'd be turned off pretty quickly.

My guess is that Jobster is will aware of these challenges and has plans in place to deal with them. But it will be interesting to see how they deal with them and also whether Facebook pulls Jobster even more into the college space than it already is or if Jobster helps accelerate Facebook's continuing de-emphasis of the college space.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on March 1, 2007 at 11:08 AM | Leave a Comment (0)