How to Hire and Retain Diverse, STEM, Recent College Graduates and Students — Part 2 of 3

The College Recruiting Bootcamp, hosted by Verizon and organized by College Recruiter took place on May 18th at the Verizon headquarters in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Moderator Andrea McEwen-Henderson, National Account Manager from College Recruiter, introduced the conference and led the discussion. Our discussion was broken up into three parts. This is the second of the three parts.

Topics Discussed:

1. What are some strategies that HR professionals have for targeting and engaging diverse STEM students outside of reaching out to diverse stem groups and organizations?

• Attending national conferences, for example Grace Hopper, which allow them to extend offers to candidates on site. Offering internships which will lead into higher job positions if they are successful.
• HR and marketing communicate and work together to be able to use social media effectively and to get people to understand why a certain position is attractive. You can also use social media to network events.
• It’s not good enough to just show up at a career fair. You have to communicate your message. Incoming freshman expect that by the time they graduate they are going to be your best brand. By sponsoring concerts or events you are using a good form of branding, to be seen as cool by the students. There’s a difference between branding and recruiting, chat up students that are there, that can be both a branding and recruiting opportunity for your company.

2. It can be difficult to hire international candidates because of their varying contracts and visas, to be able to travel to work in the US. Of course depending on country and school their ability to work in the US will be different. The norm is to work for 6 months then go back to school then come back to work more once they are out of school.

• Some companies have been using a competing high school project presentation to draw good candidates to their companies. The students at the end of their work time for their project, present in front of hiring managers and CEOs. These kids give amazing presentations, the winners of the regional competition go national and national go global. Then the winner got an internship in any location of their choice.

3. What is the best way to keep your candidates interested offseason?

• Some companies send out letters that go to people who have specific skill sets within the organizations. So they still know who they are, instead of using it as a hiring opportunity they use it to keep new employees or interns excited and committed.

To view part 1 click here

To view part 3 click here