Advice for Employers and Recruiters

#truCollegeRecruiter NYC and Dallas recruiting conferences in December 2013

Steven Rothberg

October 7, 2013

#truCollegeRecruiter NYC panel discussion track

#tru Conferences, the global leader in recruiting unconferences, and CollegeRecruiter.com, the leading niche job board for college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities, together brought to New York City and Dallas a day each of learning, engagement, and challenge for those in corporate recruiting, third-party recruitment, human resources, talent acquisition, branding, social media, technology developers, and vendors.

At each event we were joined by almost 100 who were tired of flying halfway across the country for three days of sessions which mostly bored them to death. One of our attendees at a past event said that the information came at her like water from a fire hose. Another attendee said that if he had known just how interactive the sessions would be, he would have skipped his morning coffee. If your idea of a recruiting conference presentation is a 60 to 75 minute, 25 slide PowerPoint deck, delivered by someone who clearly has never taken a public speaking class in their life then you’ve never been to one of our events.

The Audience

Both of the #truCollegeRecruiter events were aimed at corporate recruiters and other talent acquisition leaders involved in the hiring of college and university students and recent graduates as well as complimentary technology developers and vendors. The events allowed attendees in the college relations space to meet and discuss in an informal environment with today’s most innovative thought-leaders. Attendees enjoyed fast-paced, engaging, and challenging learning experiences all while have a good time.

The Topics

Topics covered included:

Attracting the best and brightest;
Big data;
Building your internship program;
Career services;
Diversity;
Gamification;
Hiring data and other metrics;
Interviewing;
Management trainee programs;
Military versus college recruiting;
Myths about Gen Y;
Mobile;
Social media;
Sourcing secrets; and
Targeting schools.

The Rules

Rules were few and far between but there was absolutely no selling or pitching by the presenters and track leaders from the podium. There was no dress code but most attendees came business casual.

The Agendas

Mornings followed the TedX / Ted Talks format of 20 minute presentations so successfully used by CollegeRecruiter.com at its three FedCollege conferences in Washington, D.C. and the College Recruiting Bootcamp conference it co-hosted with LinkedIn at its corporate headquarters in May 2013. Anyone who has been to a traditional recruiting conference knows that the typical 60 or even 75 minute presentations tend to be filled with anecdotes and stories which can only be described as tangential to the meat of the presentation. If you could force those presenters to strip their presentations right down to their core and strictly prohibit them from any type of selling or pitching then you’d be left with about 20 minutes of real content. And that’s exactly what attendees got in the mornings at the #truCollegeRecruiter events in New York City and Dallas.

Afternoons followed an unconference format of one hour discussion tracks with several tracks running concurrently so attendees could pick whichever one was of most interest. What’s an unconference? The #tru unconferences are a series of moderator-led, discussion-based conferences organized worldwide, where the emphasis is on conversation and the free exchange of ideas and experiences. The unconferences are aimed at recruiters and human resource enthusiasts. Want a more nuts-and-bolts description? Well, picture a room with chairs pulled into a circle or semi-circle and a discussion leader whose job it is to introduce their topic and then moderate the discussion so no one person dominates the conversation and that the conversation stays more or less on track. And picture that room with no handouts, no PowerPoint, and lots and lots of interactive discussion amongst the attendees. What you were left with was a gathering of minds, experiences and opinions where the attendees (or active participants) led the conversation, all spiced up and (dis)organized by Globaltru founder Bill Boorman in New York and partner Craig Fisher in Dallas. Each session lasted for about an hour and that hour felt like about 15 minutes.

For those who really want the nitty gritty, agendas are available for:

New York and
Dallas.

The Presenters and Track Leaders

We were incredibly fortunate to have a world-class group of presenters for the morning sessions and track leaders for the afternoon sessions. Most had previously delivered outstanding presentations at regional, national, and even international recruiting conferences and agreed to give up their day and in some cases travel across the country because they understood that these events would help improve how recruiters and other human resource leaders recruit and retain today’s college and university students and recent graduates. A full line-up of our gifted presenters and track leaders is available on our truCollegeRecruiter Speakers page.

The Sponsors

The two #truCollegeRecruiter conferences were brought to you by Globaltru and CollegeRecruiter.com with gracious support from:

EY (formerly Ernst & Young). EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transactions and advisory services. Our 175,000 people are united by our shared values, which inspire our people worldwide and guide them to do the right thing, and our commitment to quality, which is embedded in who we are and everything we do.
fisher VISTA. For more than a decade, fisher VISTA has helped companies improve their visibility and brand recognition in the HR marketplace. Our team of skilled marketing and media relations professionals can assist you with the full range of agency services including strategy, marketing, social media marketing, brand messaging and media relations, Web design and more. And, thanks to our proprietary marketing software, we provide you with unparalleled data and insights into the HR marketplace. The result—intelligence you need to increase leads and sales.
Gild helps companies hire skilled developers by ensuring that candidates stand out on their proven abilities, not just their resumes. Backed by proprietary data analysis that examines developers’ actual work, Gild’s tech hiring software is used by growing companies like Eventbrite, Red Hat, and Rackspace to find the developers they need to innovate. Founded in 2011, Gild is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Salt Lake City and Milan. Contact Brad Warga for more information.
JCPenney. A job at jcp will give you the opportunity to help create meaningful experiences for millions. We are rewriting the rule book of retail and we’re looking for motivated, talented individuals who can emerge as leaders in our organization. Together, we will re-create America’s favorite store and in the process, make jcp America’s favorite place to shop — and work.
Matrix Resources. Founded in 1983, MATRIX today is a national Information Technology Solutions provider, producing results for more than 2,300 clients in the last decade. Last year, more than 2,000 MATRIX consultants provided Professional IT Services, Professional IT Staffing, and Telecom Services, helping clients achieve outstanding technology and business success. MATRIX works independently and through partnerships with Microsoft and other vendors and consulting firms. Our solid financial growth, numerous industry accolades, long-tenured associates, satisfied clients and consultants – all bear testament to the great relationships we form with all our stakeholders.
Resume Forensics: How To Find Free Resumes and Passive Candidates on Google by Jim Stroud has received several 5-Star reviews on Amazon. Among them, “I’ve led HR departments in the past, and struggled to find a quick and easy way to teach my recruiters how to source. Not being an expert in the area myself didn’t help, of course, but I could at least get them the fundamental tools. With this book, Jim Stroud has created a simple and cost effective training source that I can drop on their desk and know that they will be up and running in a day.
The Sourcing Institute. In today’s turbulent talent marketplace effectiveness delivers average results. Top performance requires exceptional measures. The Sourcing Institute is dedicated to the extreme optimization of your recruitment teams, developing their talent identification, attraction and engagement skills beyond conventional proficiencies. We are experts in teaching talent identification, attraction and engagement. We live for the thrill of solving search puzzles, finding talent where others have failed, and furthering the art of search.
WCN. Since 1995, WCN has provided continually evolving best-of-breed Campus Recruitment technology solutions to hundreds of companies ranging from medium-sized businesses to Fortune 50 enterprises including JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, PWC, LEK Consulting, Marks & Spencer. Working collaboratively with top employers of college and grad students, WCN has established itself as the provider of choice of ATS, CRM, Pipelining, Event Management, Onboarding & Internship Program Management technology for campus recruitment departments around the world. WCN’s technology and support team are award-winning, candidate centric and specifically designed for the seasonally intense campus recruiting processes.

The Presentations

The sponsorship by WCN allowed us to livestream and record all of the morning presentations and some of the afternoon discussion tracks at #truCollegeRecruiter NYC:

New Job Postings

Advanced Search