Advice for Employers and Recruiters
January is the best time to refresh your entry level recruiting strategy
January is not the off-season for campus recruiting. It is the pre-season. While many organizations are still slowly finalizing their annual budgets, savvy talent acquisition professionals are using this window to outpace the competition for 2026 talent. At College Recruiter, we see that the most successful companies use the first month of the year to bridge the gap between their open roles and the high-potential candidates who are ready to prove their value. By acting now, you move from being just another employer to a destination for top-tier graduates.
The reality of the early-career market is that finding the right talent requires moving beyond traditional pedigree and focusing on potential. You need to stop looking at where a student went to school and start measuring their judgment, aptitude, and growth mindset. This guide outlines nine direct ways to transform your early-career program—from piloting AI for aptitude evaluation to partnering early with campus career centers. Taking these strategic steps today ensures your organization builds a sustainable pipeline of professionals who are ready to develop and deliver results for the long term.
- Define Outcomes For New Roles
- Redesign Interviews To Measure Judgment
- Partner Early With Campus Career Centers
- Pilot AI To Evaluate Aptitude
- Prioritize Growth Mindset Over Pedigree
- Show Real Culture Through Social Content
- Build A Graduate Talent Pipeline
- Rewrite Descriptions To Emphasize Development
- Audit And Update Skills Assessments
Define Outcomes For New Roles
My most specific recommendation is to refresh your entry-level recruiting strategy by rebuilding job descriptions around outcomes, not credentials — and January is the ideal time to do it.
Early-career candidates often self-select out when postings overemphasize years of experience, tools, or rigid requirements they couldn’t reasonably have yet. Instead, define what success looks like in the first 90 days (skills learned, problems solved, projects shipped) and hire against demonstrated potential. We consistently see higher application volume and better retention when roles are framed around growth and contribution rather than checklists. January works especially well because candidates are motivated, reflective, and actively reassessing their trajectory — clear, outcome-driven roles meet them exactly where they are.
Redesign Interviews To Measure Judgment
I believe the most effective way to refresh an entry-level recruiting strategy in January is simplifying the signal you are hiring for.
One specific tip I recommend is redesigning your entry-level interviews to evaluate learning speed and judgment instead of polish or prior experience. I once watched a company struggle to hire early talent because they screened too hard for internships and tools. In January, they changed one thing. They added a short scenario discussion where candidates explained how they would approach a real problem the team faced. No right answer required. The quality of hires improved immediately, and diversity in backgrounds increased because candidates finally had room to think out loud.
Why this works is simple. January candidates are motivated but uneven. Many are capable but untrained. When you over-optimize for resumes, you miss potential. When you optimize for how someone reasons, asks questions, and adapts, you get long-term performers.
One practical implementation tip is to train interviewers to listen for clarity of thought, not confidence alone. This same clarity-first mindset is something I have consistently seen succeed in modern people operations systems like DianaHR, where structure helps talent show up at their best.
Partner Early With Campus Career Centers
Focus on partnering with college career centers before spring career fairs start; don’t wait until March when everyone else shows up. When college students get back from winter vacations, they’re thinking seriously about jobs. Career centers are setting up their spring programs, and are considering which employers to recommend to students.
What to do: At the beginning of January, contact career centers of the colleges you wish to recruit from. Propose a virtual workshop on resume writing and interview strategies, or a realistic preview of entry-level jobs. Focus on how you can help students rather than promoting a service.
What’s in it for you: You get to know the career counselors and strengthen those relationships. They will think of you when students ask about employers. You get to interact with students before they are bombarded with other employers. Students will see you as a resource instead of just another employer with a job posting.
Recruiters will typically hold off until the career fair season, when students will be ready to meet employers. Smart recruiters take the opportunity when it’s quiet to establish relationships.
Pilot AI To Evaluate Aptitude
A stronger move is to use January to pilot AI in a very intentional, low-risk way that actually improves how you evaluate entry-level talent, not just how fast you move resumes.
Entry-level hiring is where AI can add the most value because resumes are thin and potential matters more than past titles. Using AI to assess skills, learning speed, and basic problem-solving helps teams stop defaulting to GPA filters or school prestige. January is ideal because hiring volume is lighter, which gives recruiters time to test, calibrate, and trust the data before spring hiring ramps up. Done right, this sets a more fair, skills-focused foundation for the entire year instead of layering AI on top of outdated criteria later.
Prioritize Growth Mindset Over Pedigree
January is the perfect reset button — not just for job seekers, but for employers as well. One highly effective and often overlooked way to refresh your entry-level recruiting strategy is to rewrite your job descriptions to focus on potential, not just pedigree. The traditional January flood of resumes can overwhelm hiring teams, but the real opportunity lies in filtering for growth mindset — especially at the entry level where technical skills are often still developing.
Many employers default to asking for specific degrees, internships, or GPA cutoffs. But in doing so, they risk screening out first-generation graduates, late bloomers, and unconventional candidates who might have the agility and resilience needed for long-term success. Instead, we recommend revising descriptions to highlight coachability, curiosity, and self-direction. This not only opens the funnel to a more diverse talent pool; it also aligns with what research shows about the predictors of workplace success in rapidly evolving industries.
For example, one of our partner companies in Toronto — a mid-sized fintech startup — worked with us to implement this strategy last January. They removed GPA requirements, de-emphasized university rankings, and added a new section to the posting: “We’re looking for learners, not know-it-alls.” Candidates were invited to share a time they taught themselves something outside of school. This single change shifted the tone of their recruiting process and dramatically increased engagement. They received fewer resumes — but far higher-quality applications. Three of their five final hires were self-taught coders with non-traditional backgrounds who are now among the company’s top performers.
This approach is supported by a growing body of evidence. A recent LinkedIn survey found that 92% of talent professionals believe soft skills are as important — or more important — than hard skills when evaluating entry-level candidates. Another study by the World Economic Forum predicts that by 2027, the most in-demand skills will be analytical thinking, active learning, and resilience — traits not reflected by GPA alone.
In a hiring landscape shaped by automation, AI, and remote work, your next great hire may not fit the old mold — but they will grow into the role if given the chance. January is your opportunity to update the lens through which you assess talent. Don’t just refresh your job board — refresh your mindset. That’s where the real competitive edge begins.
Show Real Culture Through Social Content
Modern entry-level candidates desire a role that comes equipped with a positive working culture that helps them to adapt to their environment and avoid feelings of job insecurity during those crucial early stages of their employment.
For businesses, promoting authenticity can make all the difference in building an engaged workforce, and it’s worth taking to social media to offer content that provides ‘peeks behind the curtain’ regarding what a typical day looks like in the office.
Featuring multimedia content such as employee testimonials, office tours, and ‘day in the life’ videos means that your prospective recruits will better understand what to expect and can benefit from a frictionless onboarding process as a result.
This transparency is built around showing candidates what’s in store for them, rather than relying on telling them alone. By using this approach to display your company ethos, you can rely on attracting a broader pool of entry-level candidates who are a strong culture fit for your workplace.
Build A Graduate Talent Pipeline
Rebuild your entry-level pipeline during the month of January ahead of your openings. Use hiring interest forms in your short-term recruiting strategy and early interviewing to engage potential candidates. By working with candidates during January, you can build a list of recent graduates for spring and summer demand through a “Talent Pool” strategy.
Candidates applying for entry-level positions are proactive and forward-thinking during the month of January, so if you reach out to them early, they will not wait until they have applied to numerous companies and will shorten the time required to hire them at a later date, and also convert their initial interest to be hired at a higher level than they normally would.
Rewrite Descriptions To Emphasize Development
One of the possible results of rejuvenating an entry-level job recruitment plan in January would be re-writing job descriptions that stress skills and development rather than an inflexible requirement of someone having experience. This would be effective since entry-level job applicants are re-evaluating their choices in January and are more receptive to those jobs that highlight development rather than extensive lists.
Audit And Update Skills Assessments
Instead of just rewriting the job description, take January to audit the actual skills assessments you give candidates for entry-level jobs. The case studies or technical challenges you used last year might already be stale. A fresh recruiting approach is one that tests for the skills you will need in the next twelve months rather than the last twelve.
This audit keeps you from filtering out high-potential candidates who have fresher skills that “do the job,” but not the classic skills we once put behind the glass. It signals to candidates that ours is a forward-looking firm. This is not a major change — “Do they know about what we did?” becomes “Can they solve what we have?”
