I must be nuts. Absolutely nuts. Tomorrow I fly from Minneapolis to Atlanta, sit there for an hour, get on a plane to Sarasota, sit there for an hour, get on a plane to Atlanta, sit there for an hour, then fly back to Minneapolis. Why? Because I can't get enough of the, ahem, love handed out by so many airline employees. Nah. Because I'm two round trips short of qualifying for Elite status again for 2009 and all the great perks that come along with that such as free upgrades to first class on many flights and virtually always at least exit row when first class is fully booked.

Computer? Check. iPod? Check. Book? Check. Ready, set, fly.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 27, 2009 at 5:40 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Tory Johnson of Women for Hire is one of the country's foremost career experts. She recently wrote an article for Yahoo! in which she listed 12 great ways to get your resume noticed by prospective employers:

1. Find job postings on job boards such as CollegeRecruiter.com and corporate employment web sites and print out the postings of interest to you.
2. Highlight the keywords and industry language used to describe the requirements and responsibilities.
3. Compare those words and phrases to the language that appears in your current resume.
4. Add the most relevant keywords to your resume. Remember that applicant tracking systems -- the software employers use to house and search for resumes which have been submitted to them -- will search for keyword matches so the more matches, the more likely a recruiter will actually look at your resume.
5. Once your resume reflects a strong match, submit it online.
6. If the system requests a cover letter, write a short one that expresses why you're a strong match and why you'd like to join the organization. Make sure it is customized to the organization and the opportunity to which you're applying.
7. Never submit a generic, one-size-fits-all resume or cover letter.
8. Find an internal referral to make a personal introduction using sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Note that when you apply to jobs on CollegeRecruiter.com we automatically show you the people that you may know within the organization through our partnership with LinkedIn. Also get active in industry associations to establish those connections and re-connect with your friends from school and people you know through your family and "regular" friends.
9. Follow-up with a call or email to the recruiter responsible for filling the position. Make sure they received your resume but, more importantly, give them your pre-rehearsed 30 second elevator pitch.
10. Get your resume into the hands of a decisionmaker. If you don't know who that is, find out by calling the company and asking the operator to put you through. If that doesn't work, do a Web search on the term "recruiter" or "HR director" along with the name of your employer of choice. The results may reveal the name you're trying to find. LinkedIn is another resource to find the correct name.
11. Stay top of mind. Every recruiter is different so be prepared to work with each differently.
12. If the employer doesn't tell you when to follow-up then ask, "what's the best way to keep in touch?"

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 24, 2009 at 8:24 AM | Leave a Comment (1)

Last Thursday we hosted the webinar, How to Use LinkedIn to Recruit College Students and Recent Graduates, presented by Jason Alba. Over 500 people signed up to join Jason share what he has learned as a job seeker and a career management advocate. Jason took the attendees on a live tour of successful recruiter strategies with LinkedIn, perhaps the most powerful of all of the social networking technologies.

Jason Alba is the CEO of JibberJobber.com and author of I'm on LinkedIn - Now What?. In this humorous, interactive discussion Jason discussed how employers can and should use LinkedIn to recruit today's college students and recent graduates. Learn how recruiters can develop and execute a LinkedIn networking strategy that will help them find new (and passive) candidates, engage with them, develop a relationship, and enrich their candidate pool.

To watch the webinar, just click on the play button below. This is definitely a must see webinar!

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 23, 2009 at 3:31 PM | Leave a Comment (2)

I've got to admit: I've been thinking a lot recently about mobile web sites, cell phone text messaging, keywords, and other types of mobile marketing. CollegeRecruiter.com has been helping clients reach college students, recent graduates, and alumni through mobile marketing campaigns for several years now and we continue to see more and more interest from more and more clients. And as we accumulate more and more experience, we're starting to see some best practices develop.

Valista recommends the following for getting the most value out of each mobile campaign:

• Keep subscription terms and conditions simple. It is important whether you're promoting a product, service, or employment opportunity that the recipient of your message easily and clearly understand the terms and conditions of your offer. Make it complex and fewer will be interested.
• Bundle only similar or related products. It is great to bundle a package offering a movie ticket with a ringtone associated with the same movie but don't bundle an offer for a movie with a ringtone that has nothing to do with that movie. Similarly, if you want to promote something related to music then giving away from iTunes downloads makes a lot of sense. But few would associate iTunes downloads with employment opportunities so keep those two apart.
• Limit bundled items to three. As described in the previous bullet, bundling similar products, services, or other opportunities together can be attractive but if experience is showing that bundling more than three items together inevitably reduces the attractiveness by driving up the price and/or complexity of the offer.
• Sell across multiple channels. Did you have success reaching your desired target with an email campaign? Hit the same target with a cell phone text messaging campaign. If people respond well to you with one form of media then they will likely respond well to you with others. Those who don't respond well to one form of media are unlikely to respond well simply because you've changed your media. The problem isn't the media. It is the lack of interest by your target market.
• Provide Value For Money. Just because you're communicating through a mobile marketing campaign does not relieve your obligation to deliver exceptional value to your target market. They won't pay more for your stuff or work for less money just because you contacted them via a cell phone text messaging (sms) campaign.
• Make loyalty programs relevant. Is there anything more annoying than signing up for a company's rewards program and then finding out that it is structured in such a way that you'll never earn any rewards?

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 20, 2009 at 3:42 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

We've been selling mobile marketing ad campaigns for several years now, primarily cell phone text messaging campaigns to our database of 10 million college students, recent graduates, and alumni who have asked to receive such messages via email, text messages, or both. I've been astounded and pleased by the incredible growth of this industry and love seeing success stories for prominent brands. The latest is a mobile ad campaign for Adidas.

Adidas recently deployed a mobile advertising campaign to promote its Originals collection of vintage clothing, retro shoes, and urban wear. They blend designs from the 1970's and 1980's with contemporary sports styles.

Adidas ran on the AdMob network a series of graphical banner ads and text links ads targeted to college students. The ad appeared in AdMob's Downloads and Communities Channels across select sites in its network, including the mobile web sites for MovieTickets.com and CBS Sports. The banner and text link ads drove traffic to the mobile Web site for Adidas Originals.

"Adidas' overall goal for the campaign was to build brand awareness and develop the brand associations of originality and self expression with the Adidas Superstar brand," Nicole Leverich, director of corporate communications for AdMob, told Mobile Marketer. "In addition, they wanted to drive traffic to their mobile site and had specific goals for activity on the site: to drive video views and ringtone and wallpaper downloads," she said.

The campaign drove more than 290,000 visitors to the Adidas Originals mobile site, about 850,000 page views, more than 100,000 ringtones, and more than 10,000 ringtones were sent to friends in the successful viral marketing component to the campaign. That's all nice, but Adidas isn't in the business of driving visitors to its mobile web site or getting people to download its ringtones. It is in the business of selling sportswear. So did the campaign help them accomplish this business objective. Definitely.

Adidas ran a brand study to measure the impact of the campaign's key brand metrics. Amongst the students who went to the Adidas mobile site, there was a significant increase in recommendation intent by more than 19 percent and an increase in message association of more than 34 percent.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 19, 2009 at 10:39 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

There are currently two primary legs to mobile marketing: push technologies such as cell phone text messaging (sms) and pull technologies such as web sites built specifically for mobile phones and keyword advertising. There are many, many other highly effective ways to use mobile marketing but, for most, these are the lowest of the low hanging fruit.

So why would I write that mobile marketing ad campaigns don't exist? Because any ad campaign which is confined to mobile technologies is doomed to fail. Barack Obama's mobile marketing strategy succeeded not because they made excellent use of mobile marketing technologies. They did, but Obama's strategy was successful because his people understood that his mobile marketing campaign had to be tightly woven into the fabric of his overall campaign. So the campaign encouraged those attending rallies to text three of their friends. They included their short code and trackable keywords on virtually all of their campaign materials. They were integrated and therefore they were successful.

Mobile marketing is doomed to fail for any client who invests in it and only in it. Use mobile marketing to leverage other media buys. Are you running ads on the sides of buses or trains? Continue to include your web site address and toll free number as ways for your target market to reach you, but starting including your short code and a trackable keyword. Are you sending out text messages to your target audience? Include a link to your mobile web site. When they get to your mobile web site, provide them with multiple options for texting a link to it to their friends.

Bottom line: don't think of mobile ad campaigns like you do television, radio, newspaper, or billboard ad campaigns. Those campaigns are purchased vertically in that each pushes your message out to your target market and should generate the desired results directly. You may use one agency for television ads and another for newspaper ads so even the process you follow when you buy these different media is completely separate. Those campaigns are vertical.

Mobile marketing is horizontal. For example, you should include your short code and keywords in your television, radio, newspaper, and billboard ads. By doing so, you'll improve the response of those ads as the pull aspects of your mobile marketing efforts will work in harmony with the push aspects of your push ad campaigns.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 19, 2009 at 7:17 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Last week we hosted the first of will be many free job hunting webinars that we'll host for the college students, recent graduates, and alumni who use CollegeRecruiter.com. The webinar, College Seniors CAN Thrive in This Job Market, was delivered by guest experts Susan Kennedy and Mitch Bornstein, principal partners of Career Treking LLC.

Susan has been coaching young professionals throughout her expansive career. She has over 20 years experience hiring and managing young professionals across different industries. Her business background combined with Human Resources experience brings a wealth of experience and practical knowledge that every young professional can benefit from. Susan has a degree in psychology and economics and frequently speaks at local area colleges about the job search process.

Over the past twenty-five years, Mitch has helped young professionals make satisfying career choices through his counseling and management consulting practice. He has successfully coached employees in companies such as DuPont, Fidelity, Johnson & Johnson, and The National Football League. His coaching expertise enables him to accelerate career decisions and development of new skills. Mitch graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.A. in Psychology and earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.

So what did we discuss in the webinar? Hiring in 2009 is projected to decrease eight percent for newly minted college graduates and 10 percent for MBAs, from 2008 levels. An abundance of qualified, experienced talent and the largest number of graduating seniors ever present stiff competition for fewer openings. Despite the above-mentioned doom and gloom, there are some encouraging industry projections.

Whether you want to see the webinar again or want to see it for the first time, click on the video box below and you will learn where the jobs are for college graduates as well as specific steps you can take to manage your job search in this challenging job market.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 18, 2009 at 3:18 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Last week, more than 400 ERE.net community members tuned in for a webinar on college recruiting with a shoestring budget.

The presenters, Dr. John Sullivan and Master Burnett, covered three main areas:

1. Why employers should be doing college recruiting even in a down economy;
   
2. How those organizations can stretch their own time resources by leveraging those offered by others; and
   
3. Tips for some recruiting opportunities which come at little to no cost.
   

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 18, 2009 at 7:15 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Time is running out to register for our free webinar this Thursday at 2pm EST / 1pm CST / 12pm MST / 11am PST, How to Use LinkedIn to Recruit College Students and Recent Graduates.

Join host Jason Alba, CEO of JibberJobber.com and author of "I'm on LinkedIn - Now What?" for a humorous, interactive discussion on how employers can and should use LinkedIn to recruit today's college students and recent graduates. Learn how recruiters can develop and execute a LinkedIn networking strategy that will help them find new (and passive) candidates, engage with them, develop a relationship, and enrich their candidate pool. Join Jason Alba as he shares what he's learned as a job seeker and career management advocate, taking you on a tour of successful recruiter strategies with LinkedIn, perhaps the most powerful of all of the social networking technologies.

Jason Alba is the CEO and creator of JibberJobber.com, and author of such as books "I'm on Facebook - Now What???" and "I'm on LinkedIn - Now What???" After a corporate downsizing impacted Jason in 2006, he experienced firsthand the difficulties of conducting a job search. Drawing on his extensive computer software and IT experience, Jason analyzed the job search process and developed JibberJobber.com, the gold standard in career management technology. Jason specializes in social media, with an emphasis on getting professional or business value out of various social tools.

Sound great? It will be. Register today.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 17, 2009 at 4:57 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Joel Cheesman of Cheezhead and HRSEO has just released a new white paper, Why Go Mobile.

The white paper is excellent. About a dozen pages, suitable for beginners or experts, and chock full of excellent tips. Download it for free from mjob.com.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 17, 2009 at 4:28 PM | Leave a Comment (2)

It is always nice when you get a slap on the back for a job well done.

Late last week we were notified by the Kim Komando Show that we would be their Cool Site of the Day on Sunday, February 15, 2009. They warned us that the additional traffic could be 200,000 visitors over the course of a couple of days but we weren't concerned as our new site is built to handle well over that traffic level.

Kim is a media empire unto herself. She:

• Hosts a weekly weekly three-hour call-in talk radio show heard on over 450 stations and created in a 6,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility with six studios and 30 employees. The show airs weekends for three hours and receives 50,000 calls per hour.
  
• Does a Digital Minute radio feature five days a week.
  
• Has written nine books about life in the digital age.
  
• Authors a widely syndicated newspaper column for USA Today.
  
• Sends out five million e-mail newsletters weekly.
  
• Selects a web site as her Cool Site of the Day.
  

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 17, 2009 at 7:06 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads provides some excellent advice for organizations which are considering rescinding job offers or deferring start dates for the class of 2009 a/k/a Members of the Facebook Generation:

• Use a phone call not an email.
• Counsel with Career Services first.
• Offer severance.
• Consider outplacement support to help them find a job.
• Build a self-help ning.com network for those affected and get employee volunteers to support it and help develop leads.
• Consider graduate school grants.
• Consider int'l. travel grants.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 16, 2009 at 6:48 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

There's little movement in starting salary offers to the college Class of 2009 compared to offers received by the Class of 2008, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

The overall average salary offer made to 2009 bachelor's degree graduates is $49,353--nearly identical to the 2008 average of $49,300. The Winter 2009 issue of NACE's Salary Survey shows that the stagnation is even evident when looking at individual majors in the disciplines.

"In many cases, salary offers for individual majors that were on the rise just a year ago are now hovering at or near last year's levels," says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director.

For business majors as a group, average salary offers have increased compared to last year's report, but only by 2.6 percent. Within the business category, many of the individual business disciplines saw small increases.

For example, the offer to accounting majors rose by 1.9 percent. Their average starting salary offer stands at $48,334. Similarly, grads earning finance degrees saw their average offer increase 2 percent, bringing it to $49,794.

Business administration/management graduates realized a more generous increase: Their average offer rose 4.7 percent to $45,887. Conversely, marketing graduates saw their average offer slip by 0.3 percent, from $43,459 to $43,334. Of greater significance: Just one year ago, marketing grads saw a sizable increase of 5.2 percent from 2007.

As a group, graduates in the computer science disciplines also saw a decrease; their average salary offer fell 1.4 percent from $56,920 to $56,128. (Last year at this time, their average offer was a 7.9 percent gain over the previous year.) Despite the drop in their offer, employers say these grads are in demand. Consequently, the drop may suggest that current economic conditions make it difficult for employers to raise offers.

Due to relatively low supply, engineering graduates generally are in demand regardless of the economy. However, this report shows that even these grads are not impervious to the current economic climate. As a group, engineering grads saw their average starting salary offer rise 2.2 percent to $58,525. But last year at this time, this group earned a 5.7 percent increase.

Despite the demand, most of the engineering disciplines earned much lower increases than those they earned a year ago. For example, the offer to chemical engineering grads rose 2.7 percent to $65,466. Last year at this time, their average offer was up more than 6 percent over 2007. Civil engineering graduates also posted a 2.7 increase (vs. 4.8 percent last year); their average offer rose to $50,785. Average salary offers to electrical engineering graduates increased by 1.6 percent (vs. 3.5 percent last year) to $57,404. Again, it is important to note that despite the tepid increase, electrical engineering grads are in demand, according to respondents to NACE Job Outlook 2009. Mechanical engineering graduates saw one of the higher increases; their average salary offer rose 3.9 percent to $58,648.

Average salary offers to liberal arts graduates remain virtually unchanged. The overall average starting salary offer to Class of 2008 liberal arts grads was $36,715 and the current average of $36,445 represents a decrease of less than 1 percent. As is typically the case at this time of year, data for the individual liberal arts disciplines are too limited to allow for closer examination. However, NACE will continue to monitor the average salary offers for these graduates in upcoming Salary Survey issues.

"Results of this report and NACE's Job Outlook 2009 report indicate that the college job market has lost some of the momentum gained over the last several years," Mackes says. "Even so, we need to keep in mind that data from this report are only a small portion of the total offers that will be reported in Salary Survey for the 2008-09 recruiting year; we'll need to keep our eye on what the end of this recruiting season may yet bring."

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 13, 2009 at 4:19 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

A new study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) shows that, for new college graduates in this tight economy, becoming the perfect job candidate is a tall order.

"Today's employers have an extensive list of attributes, skills, and qualities they look for in their job candidates," says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director. "And that's assuming that the candidate meets the employer's basic criteria--including having the requisite major, course work, and GPA."

Nearly 70 percent of employers taking part in NACE's Job Outlook 2009 study said they screen candidates by GPA (grade point average).

"For most, the cutoff is 3.0--or a B average," says Mackes. "If a student passes that hurdle, then the employer takes a look at other attributes."

Among the skills, attributes, and qualities employers prize most are communication skills, a strong work ethic, ability to work in a team, and initiative.

"These are the type of skills and qualities that will help a new hire succeed as an employee and contribute to the organization," says Mackes.

Employers also emphasize leadership experience. Asked to compare two otherwise equally qualified candidates, employers chose the one who had held a leadership position over the candidate who simply was involved in extracurricular activities.

Employers also expressed a preference for candidates with relevant work experience.

"More than three-quarters of employers told us they prefer to hire candidates with relevant work experience," says Mackes. "In this case, we're talking about new college graduates who have taken part in internships or cooperative education assignments."

The long list of wished-for candidate abilities and qualities is nothing new, says Mackes.

"We've been asking employers to describe their 'ideal' candidate for more than 10 years, and these same attributes are consistently identified as valued by employers," she says. "But, in times like these when job opportunities are tight, it is perhaps even more important for job candidates to understand what employers want and find ways to demonstrate those qualities."

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 13, 2009 at 4:12 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Internships, co-ops, apprenticeships and other such systems have existed for hundreds of years. They help young adults get the experience they need in order to be hired to do interesting, meaningful work by a quality employer that pays fairly. Students are no different from those of us who have been in the workforce for years or even decades. We all want to do work for which we are competent, which we value, and which is of interest to us.

The problem right now, however, for students is that the economy is in shambles. Far fewer employers are hiring interns this year than in years past and those who are hiring are being deluged by applications. With fewer positions and more applicants, more and more employers have re-thought their internship programs. So what adjustments should be made? The Intern Queen recently posted a great list:

• Interns don't need to get paid. Most internships, in fact, are unpaid.
• Have higher expectations for the interns you do hire.
• Understand that all internships are in demand this year, not just those from brand name organizations which are offering paid internships.
• Realize that students start looking for internships now when they're freshmen. This is no longer something done only by those entering their senior years.
• Expect to convert your interns into permanent, full-time employees. Think of an internship as a temp-to-perm opportunity where you get to try out a potential employee with very little risk and they get to try you out too. If the match is good, you've got a great, inexpensive new employee ready to start immediately.
• Everyone wants an internship. Parents, professors, career counselors, and students all talk about the importance of having at least one and preferably multiple quality internships prior to graduation. They're no longer seen as feathers in the caps of the most highly qualified students. They're seen as necessities for all.
• Students get the tough times we're in. This is an incredibly savvy generation and they're watching the news and seeing their parents being laid off. They know that we're in tough times. Many are adjusting their graduation dates so they can ride out this period while in school.
• Many of the websites with the highest traffic are social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and others. How many of your experienced workers really understand these sites? Virtually all of your interns will. Bring them on board to show your team how to use these sites for business purposes. You'll be amazed at the positive results that come out of that.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 13, 2009 at 12:22 PM | Leave a Comment (1)

One of these days I'm going to have to set aside half or preferably a whole day when I'm in the Denver area to meet up with Eric Shannon. For those who have not yet had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with Eric, he's the President of INTERNETinc.com, InternetRecruitingNews.com, DiversityJobs.com, and LatPro.com. More importantly, he's widely known and respected in the job board industry as a caring veteran who understands that to succeed over the long-term, which he has, your treatment of your clients and job seeker visitors needs to be the same whether the times are good, bad, or ugly.

Eric just posted to his site a list of online recruiting and job board professionals who stand up for something, make ourselves accountable on their websites, and move our industry forward. Eric then took it a step further by creating an authenticity badge "for online recruiting leaders who use their names on their websites, who tell their story, make themselves accessible, write a blog and generally raise the level of confidence a notch in our industry. These are leaders who clearly put their heart into their work."

I'm honored to be on his list. Thanks, Eric!

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 12, 2009 at 4:51 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

I love Facebook. I use it almost every day and sometimes multiple times a day. It has allowed me to connect with people that I otherwise wouldn't have known existed. Sometimes getting to know someone isn't a good thing, but it usually is. Not only is it enjoyable, but it is also educational. Or is it enjoyable because it is educational? But I digress.

Tony Zanders from SimplyHired recently spotted a great article with tips for how to protect yourself if you've decided to use Facebook. Some of the tips should be immediately implemented by all, others only by those who are the most concerned about protecting their privacy. So regardless of which bucket you fall into, read 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know and then thank Tony for caring about all of us.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 12, 2009 at 8:26 AM | Leave a Comment (1)

I received an email from a woman in my network who was seeking advice for a relative of hers. The relative has been out of work for a year and has spent that time applying for job after job and networking. The woman didn't describe how many jobs or what types of jobs the relative has been applying to or what kind of networking or how much networking her relative has been doing. She asked for my advice. I wrote to her with the following advice:

If he is spending day after day sending out resumes and networking with no interviews then clearly his approach is seriously flawed. For him to continue would be insane. One definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

I strongly recommend that he hire a professional resume writer to re-write his resume. That document is supposed to get him in the door for interviews but it is not doing so. That process should also help him better understand the positions to which he should be applying. My gut tells me that he's probably applying for positions which aren't a good fit for his competencies, interests, and values and the employers know it. If he's over qualified then they won't want him because he's likely to quit too soon. If he's under qualified then they won't want him because he's likely to get fired.

I also recommend that he take a hard look at how he is networking and how much he is networking. He should be helping others at least four hours a day, not asking others to help him in his job search. Networking is not about asking others to do for you, it is about asking others what you can do for them. Get him to volunteer in his chosen career path so that he can get out in the work world again and interact with people who may want to hire him for their organizations. There are hundreds of thousands of non-profits and small businesses which are starved for help but can't afford to hire right now. He can help any of those. When he does, he'll likely find that the nickels that he gives away will come back as dollars.

What else should I have told her to tell her relative?

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 10, 2009 at 7:33 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

One of the interesting developments to come out of the convergence of rapidly increasing costs of education and the tanking job market is that more and more high school seniors are going to be more pragmatic in their choice of which college to attend. Friends of ours are proud that their bright son chose to go to a well regarded two-year community college so that he could accumulate fully transferable college credits at a relatively low cost while he figures out what he wants to do with his life...or at least the first few years after graduating from college. At the age of 18, the kid is showing wisdom. Why throw $15,000 per year at a good four-year college when you'll end up in the same place as someone who spends $3,000 per year at the two-year school, transfers, and graduates with the same diploma?

Will more and more high school seniors have the same epiphany. I sure hope so. The cost of a four-year degree revolts me. I've said it before and I'll say it again: when I graduated from college 20 years ago, the most that any of my friends had to trade-off in order to take a low paid but incredibly rewarding job was an inability to live a fancy lifestyle. No awesome apartment. No cool new car. But regardless of their student loan balance they could afford to take any job they wanted. No more.

Many of today's college students cannot afford to work in the field of their dreams. Want to teach? Great, but not if you had to finance your own way through a good four-year school. With tuition, books, room, board, and other such costs exceeding $25,000 at virtually all state colleges and $40,000 at virtually all private colleges, many of these kids are graduating with at least $100,000 and some more than $250,000 in debt. A debt load of that level means that their monthly student loan payments exceed their paychecks. Even if the two are the same, where do they live? What do they eat? How do they get to work?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Sara Murray indicated that "enrollment increases are running at double or even triple their usual annual rate at community colleges across the country. In Media, Pa., for example, spring enrollment at Delaware County Community College has climbed 8.5% over last year -- a big jump for a school that usually sees a 3% annual increase."

Will the shift away from over-priced four-year colleges put downward pricing pressure on those unresponsive institutions? We can only hope so. For if it doesn't, we're going to continue to graduate generations of young adults who are trapped by the need to work in professions which pay well enough to cover their living expenses but which can never pay enough to compensate those people for the loss of the joy that they should feel from doing work which they're good at, which they value, and in which they're interested.

Tip of the Hat: Art Koff of RetiredBrains.com for alerting me to the WSJ article.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 9, 2009 at 3:51 PM | Leave a Comment (1)

Given the terrible job market and the worse news that seems to come out almost every day, we all need to find a way to have a few laughs now and then. This should do the trick for just about anyone:

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 6, 2009 at 6:54 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

I'm really excited about the first of what should be many that we'll host for the college students, recent graduates, and alumni who use CollegeRecruiter.com. Next week we will host the free webinar, College Seniors CAN Thrive in This Job Market, by Susan Kennedy, principal partner of Career Treking LLC. We already have 323 registrations. If you haven't registered yet, do so today at the registration page.

Hiring in 2009 is projected to decrease eight percent for newly minted college graduates and 10 percent for MBAs, from 2008 levels. An abundance of qualified, experienced talent and the largest number of graduating seniors ever present stiff competition for fewer openings. Despite the above-mentioned doom and gloom, there are some encouraging industry projections. In this webinar, you will learn where the jobs are for college graduates as well as specific steps you can take to manage your job search in this challenging job market.

Susan Kennedy, principal partner of Career Treking LLC, has been coaching young professionals throughout her expansive career. She has over 20 years experience hiring and managing young professionals across different industries. Her business background combined with Human Resources experience brings a wealth of experience and practical knowledge that every young professional can benefit from. Susan has a degree in psychology and economics and frequently speaks at local area colleges about the job search process.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 5, 2009 at 12:07 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Willy Franzen did some great research over the past week and came up with a list of 50 users of Twitter that job seekers should follow if they want to have every advantage possible in their job search. I am honored to have been included on the list.

Thanks, Willy!

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 4, 2009 at 6:53 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

One of my favorite veterans of the recruiting and staffing industry is Peter Weddle. He recently published another book for candidates (does the guy ever sleep?). Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System is on par with 20th century employment bibles such as Parachute but Peter's new book is specifically designed for 21st century issues.

If you're struggling with trying to figure out what to do for career success, then buy this book. It tells you what to do for career success but also when, where, and how to do it by encouraging you to use your reasoning ability on the left side of your brain while also using your creative ability on the right side of your brain.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 3, 2009 at 4:04 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

We recently held a webinar in conjunction with the Eastern, Mountain Pacific, Midwest, and Southern Associations of Colleges and Employers on the future of on-line recruiting. Interested? If so, click on the video box below to watch the webinar.

What are the current media options available to today's staffing leaders, and what lies ahead in the ever-changing world of on-line employment marketing? In this highly interactive, humorous presentation, we'll compare the history of consumer marketing with the marketing by employers of their employment opportunities. We'll discuss which on-line opportunities make the most sense today for employers who each are struggling to find the best possible candidates. We'll then peer into the future to see what lies ahead so that you can best market your employment opportunities using the media options of today and tomorrow. What's does the future hold for you in on-line recruiting? This session spells it out!

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 2, 2009 at 3:59 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

On Thursday, January 22, 2009, I delivered a webinar on What Career Service Office Professionals Need to Know About the Future of On-line Recruiting: Why Job Boards and Facebook Are Only Gateways to What is Ahead. Interested? Watch the webinar by clicking on the video below.

What are the current media options available to today's students and staffing leaders, and what lies ahead in the ever-changing world of on-line employment marketing? In this highly interactive, humorous presentation, we'll compare the history of consumer marketing with the marketing by candidates of their skills and by employers of their employment opportunities. We'll discuss which on-line opportunities make the most sense today for students and employers who each are struggling to find the best matches. We'll then peer into the future to see what lies ahead so that you can best help your students market their skills and employers with whom you work market their employment opportunities using the media options of today and tomorrow. What does the future hold for your stakeholders in on-line recruiting? This session spells it out!

This webinar was held in conjunction with the Eastern, Mountain Pacific, Midwest, and Southern Associations of Colleges and Employers.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 2, 2009 at 11:49 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

By Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler, CareerXroads

Harvard MBAs returning from their holiday were greeted January 13 with an email from Jana P. Kierstead, Managing Director, MBA Career Services who stated right off the bat that "postings in the Job Bank are down 24%." We're sure this factoid doesn't portend anything dire. We can't imagine any of the June crop of grads from Harvard's Business School will go hungry. Most likely it simply means fewer alternatives. But that isn't true everywhere else.

We are beginning to hear about significant numbers of offers being recalled from undergrads in less prestigious institutions of higher learning. This could become an issue and we would encourage firms considering similar actions to think twice. Reneging on young professionals at the very beginning of their careers in the "Age of Facebook" is sure to have lasting consequences. If you must do it, think about investing enough to create a much more positive experience:

• Use a phone call not an email.
• Counsel with Career Services first.
• Offer severance.
• Consider outplacement support.
• Build a self-help ning.com network for those affected and get employee volunteers to support it and help develop leads.
• Consider graduate school grants (we heard one firm was considering this).
• Consider int'l. travel grants.
• [Your innovative option here]

Back to Harvard. We were amazed at the level of career management initiatives the Business school invests in. They include:

• a Career Coach assigned to each student,
  
• Job Search Teams: 7-9 students plus 1 coach collaborating with one another to achieve their employment goals,
  
• several Career Services portals,
  
• a series of industry-specific networking strategy programs called Beyond the Job Bank that focus on issues like networking best-practices, and
  
• Directors' Notes, an effort by the Career Services staff to be more transparent with their knowledge and thoughts in light of the economic situation.
  

Kudos to Harvard. We expect they aren't alone but clearly are changing the playing field.

-- Article courtesy of Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler of CareerXroads. Gerry and Mark may be reached via email at mmc@careerxroads.com or phone at 732-821-6652.

Posted by Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com on February 2, 2009 at 10:48 AM | Leave a Comment (1)