On March 19th, College Recruiter announced on The Chad and Cheese Podcast that our site, leveraging search technology from Google Cloud Talent Solutions, had rolled out major upgrades to how students, recent graduates, and other candidates can search for and find jobs. The announcement in March was two-fold:

1. Candidates can search all of the job postings using any of 100+ languages, even if the job posting was written in English. Employers hiring retail sales associates, for example, could advertise those positions in English but may see an increase in applications from those whose primary language is Spanish but who are also proficient in English.
2. Rather than searching for jobs by city or state/province, we became one of the first sites not just to enable commute search, but to put it front and center. If you’re searching for a part-time job in New York City, does it really matter that the job is in New York City? Wouldn’t it be more relevant if you could restrict or prioritize your search to jobs which are within a 15-minute walk, 30-minute cycle, 45-minutes on public transport, etc? Thanks to our friends at Google, the millions of candidates who use College Recruiter a year now search by how long it will take for them to get to a job rather than the less meaningful proxy of how far away that job is.

Today, in collaboration with Google Cloud, we are excited to share another huge step forward for candidates. Quite simply, candidates who are searching for remote work will no longer need to guess at whether the employer has included words in their job posting such as virtual, home-based, work-from-home, WFH, or telecommute. Until now, if the candidate included in her search the keyword “remote” and the employer included in his posting the keyword “virtual”, very, very few job boards would be able to match the two job postings. In other words, job postings rarely clearly described work opportunities as being available for remote work even when they were. Effective immediately, we’re able to do so and we’re able to do so exceptionally well.

According to Google, “job seekers have different lifestyle and geographic needs that require flexibility. Working from home can enable parents and caregivers to be more available to their families. It can help retain a high performing employee who regularly relocates as a military spouse. And it can help increase the loyalty of millennial and Generation Z employees who are much likelier to stay in a role for 5+ years if their company is flexible about where and when they work.”

In addition to helping the largely Millennial and Gen Z candidates who use College Recruiter to find great careers, we’re also excited about the promise this enhancement has for those with disabilities that make it difficult or even impossible to commute to work. There’s a tremendous amount of talent in these people. We’re proud to be a part of this solution.

For many employers, this is an incredibly frustrating labor market. Technology has made it easier than ever for candidates to apply to jobs so employers typically say that quantity isn’t their issue but quality is. But why?

College Recruiter believes that every student and recent graduate deserves a great career. Our customers are primarily Fortune 1,000 companies, federal government agencies, and other organizations who want to hire dozens or even hundreds of students and recent graduates of all one-, two-, and four-year colleges and universities for part-time, seasonal, internship, and entry-level jobs.

How is College Recruiter able to help so many of the largest and well-known employers in the country hire so many great candidates? A lot of reasons, but a key one is that we license the world’s best search technology — Google’s — to match up candidates who know what kind of a job they’re looking for but might not guess at the job title or other keywords that your organization uses in its ads. Most job boards use dumb search technology, so if an employer posts a job using RN for the job title and the candidate searches for registered nurse positions, they’ll be like two ships passing in the night. But College Recruiter will match that employer with that candidate. 

We’ll also prioritize the search results based upon a bunch of factors, including how motivated that employer is to hire that candidate (those who want to hire more or faster rank higher so they get more well-qualified candidates faster) and even how long it will take the candidate to get to the job whether they want to commute by walking, bicycling, transit, or driving. Try telling a college career service office website that you only want to look at jobs within 15-minutes walking distance from campus. 

Oh, and we fully automate the process of adding, editing, and deactivating your postings without you having to lift a finger. Heck, you don’t even have to create an account on our site.

In short, College Recruiter is built from the ground-up with the needs of large employers in mind. You’re not trying to hire one, unique candidate. You don’t have all of the time in the world like some SMB’s do. We get that. Want some proof? Let’s set up a 30-minute call to talk through your hiring challenges or email those to me. Either way, I’ll make specific recommendations to you for how we can help.

College Recruiter was one of the first job boards to replace its proprietary job search technology with what is now called Google Cloud Talent Solutions (CTS).

We went live about 15-months ago in January 2018 and have been very, very happy. As I discussed on a recent episode of The Chad and Cheese Podcast, the results we’ve seen have been superb: far more candidates searching far more jobs and far more applying to those jobs. In addition, our costs have plummeted because we’re saving a ton of development and customer service time.

But the transition has also been eye opening to us in terms of pretty minor adjustments that very few employers are either aware of or are willing to make yet which would yield great results for them. Here are just some:

• Include compensation, even if it is a range. Most employers are still reluctant to disclose compensation range because, they typically claim, it undermines their ability to negotiate with the candidate. That reveals a problem with their negotiation skills and that’s understandable, but fix the negotiation skills. Some employers want to underpay employees and that’s why they don’t want to reveal the salary ranges, but it isn’t 1952. Employees can easily find out if they’re fairly paid and those who aren’t will become disgruntled and leave, which leads to a lack of productivity and so any money they may have saved in wages will more than be offset by the productivity issues.
• Include street address, city, state/province, postal code, and country for every job. If the jobs are remote, denote that in your location field using a word like “remote” so that Google can easily identify those. Without the street address, Google has a harder time figuring out the exact location of the job and that leads to problems with the new commute search feature. College Recruiter built a bunch of code to get around this problem, but few job boards will do that. If we don’t get the street address, we use the Google Maps API to look-up the address and then we feed that to the CTS API, but some employers have multiple locations in a city and so our look-up may identify the wrong location. Also, some employers don’t have every location listed in Google Maps, such as those who have field offices. If your field office isn’t listed, then a Maps API look-up won’t work properly. Our search is now commute time driven rather than location driven. With Google CTS powering 4,000 job boards and ATS sites, the days of looking at candidates looking at location and inferring commute time are, thankfully, quickly coming to an end.
• I know from The Chad and Cheese Podcast that Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman hate the use of words like “ninja” in job descriptions and that’s fair, but the use of those words isn’t a problem if the employer also uses more standard language like “sales representative.” The standard language will allow CTS to infer what the job is about, and it is amazing how accurately CTS does that.
• For years, Joel and other SEO experts have tried to convey to employers and others that they need to think of a job posting as a web page and that web pages need to be SEO optimized. That’s still the case, but isn’t as critical as it used to be because Google is smarter than it used to be. Still, the most important signal to Google and therefore to job boards and ATS that use CTS about what the job is about is the job title. Do not use internal jargon like SE II to refer to a Software Engineer Level 2. In fact, don’t refer to “Level 2” at all because that’s only meaningful internally. Use for the job title language like, “Software Engineer Team Lead” as that’s more meaningful externally. If your lawyers tell you that you need to use SE II, well, get new lawyers or stop lying about what they’re telling you as that’s bullshit. Second, use the internally approved language in the body of the job description but use externally accepted language in the job title field.
• Think about Amazon recommendations when writing a job title. If you like A, you’ll also probably like B. Include language like that in your job descriptions. “If you like math, then you’ll love this job as our programmatic job ad buying manager”. Google will understand that someone who searches for jobs using the keyword “math” should be shown that job because of the keyword, but it will also understand to show that job to someone who searches for jobs using keywords like statistics and physics. This is starting to happen. One of our employer customers is hiring hundreds of people for a maintenance technician job and they started to see respiratory therapist applying. They interviewed some, hired some, and want to hire more. I didn’t get the connection until they told me that respiratory therapist know how to operate machinery and that’s what the technicians do.

AI offers tremendous opportunities to those in talent acquisition and human resources as well as society as a whole, but also poses some threats.

On December 10, 2018, hundreds of talent acquisition and other human resources leaders gathered in Mountain View, California and remotely via live stream to participate in the College Recruiting Bootcamp on AI, organized by job search site, College Recruiter, and hosted by Google.

Our closing keynote was delivered by John Sumser, Principal Analyst for HRExaminer, an independent analyst firm covering HR technology and the intersection of people, tech, and work.

(more…)

AI offers tremendous opportunities to those in talent acquisition and human resources as well as society as a whole, but also poses some threats.

On December 10, 2018, hundreds of talent acquisition and other human resources leaders gathered in Mountain View, California and remotely via live stream to participate in the College Recruiting Bootcamp on AI, organized by job search site, College Recruiter, and hosted by Google.

Our featured presentation was delivered by Alexandra Levit, author of Humanity Works, speaker, consultant, futurist, Chair of the DeVry University Career Advisory Board think tank, and expert in all things workplace.

(more…)

AI offers tremendous opportunities to those in talent acquisition and human resources as well as society as a whole, but also poses some threats.

University relations, talent acquisition, and other human resource leaders from corporate, non-profit, and government organizations gathered on on Monday, December 10, 2018 at Google for a highly interactive, collegial, and informative day of learning. It was goal of the organizer, College Recruiter, that the hundreds who attended either in person or via livestream left with a roadmap for how they and their organizations could not only survive, but also thrive by using AI to enhance their existing talent acquisition tactics and strategies.

This video captures the opening keynote and related panel discussion at the College Recruiting Bootcamp on AI at Google. (more…)

One of my favorite people in the recruitment industry is Peter Clayton of TotalPicture Media. Without a doubt, he is the most knowledge and capable videographer in the industry. When I hear that he’s involved in a project, I know that the project will go well.

Peter and I recently sat down…about 1,266 miles apart, to discuss next Monday’s College Recruiting Bootcamp on AI at Google. Over the past decade, College Recruiter has organized 16 of these one-day conferences for talent acquisition and human resource leaders. All have essentially broken even, none have lost much money, and none have made much money. And that’s the way we planned them. We wanted to do something that would enable us to give back to the recruiting industry and a no-pitch, educational conference that moves around the country seemed like a great idea as there is a tremendous amount of turnover in talent acquisition and human resources, especially amongst those whose primary focus is the recruitment of people early in their careers, including college and university relations recruitment leaders. (more…)

Recent college grads seeking the opportunity to develop a wide variety of job related skills can do so by pursuing entry-level assistant jobs.

That’s what Amanda Ponzar did in her first job as an administrative assistant.

“It taught me business skills, computer skills, organization, project management, and how to work with others,” said Ponzar, who is now the Chief Marketing Officer of Community Health Charities, an Alexandria, VA-based non-profit federation that raises awareness and funds through workplace campaigns and strategic partnerships.

From that job, Ponzar moved to a marketing assistant role with the Franklin Mint, a worldwide provider of fine art and collectibles.

“I learned about marketing and advertising, and demonstrated curiosity, competence, dependability, and initiative, so I was soon asked to edit management letters and collateral marketing materials, and then was recommended by my colleagues for a copywriter job at The Franklin Mint’s in-house ad agency,” said Ponzar.

That is when Ponzar’s career took off. She moved into advertising copywriter and marketing management roles, went back to school to earn a Master’s Degree in advertising and marketing, and is now a CMO of a non-profit.

She credits her varied experiences as an assistant for her career growth and success.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without those first entry-level jobs as an assistant that helped me define my career path,” said Ponzar.

College students, and recent college grads should consider assistant jobs as a way to get their foot in a door at a company they would like to work with, or to build important job skills. While most college grads don’t get a degree aspiring to be an assistant, think long-term. Assistant jobs help provide a paycheck to start paying off school loans or debt (and help achieve financial independence to not live at home), and/or provide real world experience and a chance to build important job skills. In addition, it’s a great opportunity for the recent college grad considering grad school to gain work experience before taking the next step of their career. Many assistants could also work with companies as they pursue advanced educational opportunities – and maybe the employer will also help pay for it through tuition reimbursement programs. Building a variety of marketable skills is important, and assistant jobs provide a great opportunity to do just that.

Assistants have unique opportunities to be exposed to all facets of a business, says Brandi Britton, District President of OfficeTeam, a leader in the placement of highly skilled office and administrative professionals into administrative assistant and front office jobs. Assistant jobs are in demand at small and large companies, non-profits, startups, Fortune 500 and Silicon Valley firms. Companies like Google, Facebook, and other leading tech firms all succeed because of good assistants.

“Entry-level assistant can learn valuable technology skills from constant exposure to Microsoft Office, enterprise resource planning, database management and customer relationship management software,” says Britton. “You may even build experience with social media tools since administrative staff are often tasked with monitoring and managing their company’s accounts.”

Recent college grads seeking assistant jobs, whether it be an administrative assistant, marketing assistant, office assistant, personal assistant or executive assistant (which often do take more advanced skills), can also learn these important career skills, says Britton:

• Time and project management: Assistants often have to keep on top of executives’ schedules as well as project timelines. Let’s not forget that assignments come their way from every direction. That’s why assistants are masters of time and project management, organization, multitasking and adaptability.
• Continual learning opportunities: You become well-rounded because you’re able to work on a variety of tasks – everything from event coordination to presentation decks. Once you figure out the types of projects you like most, you can hone your skills and consider moving on to a more specialized role in the organization.
• Budget and negotiation: When you frequently speak with vendors and make purchases on behalf of the company, you quickly become skilled at budgeting and negotiation.
• Verbal and written communication skills: Assistants are in constant contact with any number of internal and external contacts. If you’re in the role long enough, you’ll develop strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Specialized skills based on organization/industry: Being an assistant in a specific department or industry exposes you to the day-to-day operations and provides insight into that area’s lingo, processes and technology.
• Inside company knowledge: You gain knowledge into colleagues’ work styles and the corporate culture, which gives you an advantage at the company if you hope to advance there.

Alissa Carpenter founded Everything’s Not Ok and That’s OK Coaching after over a decade in higher education. She has advised Millennials and GenZ students at institutions such as The Wharton School and Penn State.

“As a recent graduate, being a personal assistant can be beneficial to your long term career goals,” says Carpenter. “You have the unique opportunity to work on numerous tasks and learn transferrable skills. You are often on the front line and are able to build relationships and rapport that can provide valuable connections.”

The three skills organizations believe millennials are lacking can be developed in a personal assistant role, says Carpenter, including:

• Interpersonal skills: You will be working with people from various levels both in and outside of your organization. You will learn to ask appropriate questions to find the most effective way to complete your tasks at hand and build strategic working relationships.
• Teamwork: In one of the key positions that is crucial to putting events and tasks together, you will learn how to delegate and how to work with people with varying personalities.
• Communication skills: As a key point of contact you will quickly learn the most effective ways to communicate with individuals and how people like to receive communications.

Utilizing a role as an assistant to get where you want to be later in one’s career can really be a asset to entry-level jobs seekers, says Lori Williams, Recruiting Coordinator for College Nannies, Sitters, and Tutors of Edmond, Oklahoma.

“Not only does it help build credibility and experience on your resume, but the people you often meet in that role can be sourced as references in the future,” says Williams. “You can develop many skills in this role, including project management, event planning, client relations, and administrative duties. All of these skills are transferable into future roles in just about any industry. Being able to develop these skills on the ground floor will help you add a good section to your resume entitled skills or career highlights and you can translate these into the job description for future career goals.”

Said Ponzar: “Never underestimate an assistant job as a way to get your foot in the door and show what you can do, learn about the company, develop relationships, and new skills.”

Look for assistant jobs right now on College Recruiter! Want more tips and advice on how to build career and job skills? Then stay connected to College Recruiter by visiting our blog, and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

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Employers are constantly looking for new ways to recruit and assess new talent and hires. The standard method of asking candidates to submit a resume and go through an interview process works for some employers – but not for others.

Because of that employers are now using gamification to recruit and assess recent college grads.

“Today’s employers face the challenge of recruiting and hiring recent college grads and Millennials, the largest generational demographic in the American workforce,” says John Findlay, co-founder of Launchfire, a digital engagement shop that turns boring content and mandatory training materials into a fun, easy-to-digest, game-based learning experience. “Many companies are finding that using game-based learning and gamification, which integrate points, badges, competition and role-playing, can be used to effectively attract and assess candidates.”

When using “games” as a recruitment tool, employers are looking to assess problem solving, creative and critical thinking skills, says John Reed, senior executive director for Robert Half Technology. Although they are meant to be engaging and somewhat entertaining, recent college grads must treat these games as carefully as one would any actual professional assignment.

Large employers such as Google, Microsoft, Deloitte, PwC, Cisco, Domino’s Pizza, and Marriott International are among the many employers using gamification as part of their recruiting strategies.

“If you’re hoping to gain employment with the organization, you should take all gamification exercises seriously and remember that this is all part of the interview process,” says Reed. “Don’t lose sight of the fact that it’s a professional reflection of you and this is, most times, your first impression with hiring managers and you want to put your best work out there.”

Some colleges and universities are already introducing gamification to its students in hopes of better preparing them for the job search, and for real-life gamification-focused recruitment processes. Kaplan University uses gamification as a way to better prepare students and recent college graduates for the job market. Kaplan University has a main campus in Davenport, Iowa and headquarters in Chicago, and serves 42,000 online and campus-based students.

“Career Development doesn’t just happen, it’s an ongoing process of building skills and abilities and we’re utilizing gamification as a way to reinforce and reward career development with our students,” says Jennifer Lasaster, Vice President of Employer and Career Services at Kaplan University.

Kaplan University students are invited to participate in an internal CareerNetwork that was built with a video game developer and includes badges and quests for students who build and receive critiques on resumes and social media profiles, read field-related and career related articles, practice interviewing, review, and apply for jobs. Students are introduced to Kaplan’s CareerNetwork through classroom interactions and begin to accumulate points and badges throughout their time as a student, and can continue to do so after graduation.

The team at Kaplan has also built a feature for students to compete against each other in a resume showdown that will premier in 2017. In that scenario, Kaplan partners with an employer who shares a job description. Students are then encouraged to submit their resumes for that job. Five resumes are then selected for competition. Personal information is blocked out and the recruiter provides feedback to students on how and why one resume is declared the winner.

“This teaches students the importance of customizing their resume for each job, and that a quality job search is much more valuable than just taking one resume and sending it to various employers,” says Lasaster. “It’s also a great way for employers to receive resumes and feel like they are making a difference by teaching students what they need to do to apply for jobs at their company.”

“We’re using gamification as a way to better prepare our students for the real world,” added Lasaster.

The reality is, whether or not one is involved in a gamification-based recruiting process, recent college grads should still treat the job search like a game, says John-Paul Hatala, Ph.D., Director, Research and Development for SnagPad, a tool that enables career professionals and the job seekers they support to learn about and manage job search activity in a visual and strategic way.

“The most important challenge job seekers face today is conducting a strategic job search,” says Hatala. “In order to win this game, the idea is to think of it as going from step-to-step in the typical hiring cycle. The length of the cycle depends on the type of job/industry.”

For example, if a recent college grad is looking at an entry-level position, the cycle might be eight weeks until interview or job offer, says Hatala. So if a job seeker has applied to a job but hasn’t heard back in four weeks, move on to focus on the next opportunity.

“The more cycles you get involved in, the greater your chances of getting an interview or hired,” says Hatala. “This way you can stay realistic about your chances of a getting a particular job and move on to the next. This will help maintain a level of motivation that is necessary for a job search.”

Many projects that can be used during the gamification process are based on actual business issues or reflect what a new hires responsibilities will entail. Findlay points out two ways recent college grads can use gamification to their advantage in the recruiting process:

1. Experience a “Real” Work Culture: Do you ever wish you could experience a company’s culture before you even take the time to apply for the position? Many companies are using simulations to allow prospects to live a week in the job. This not only allows the candidate to better understand the role and their job responsibilities, but helps sets realistic expectations about what they could expect in the position. That way if candidates don’t like the experience, they don’t have to apply, saving everyone time.
2. Is this position for me? New college grads often think they are interested and qualified for one position when in reality, another type of position may be a better fit. Game simulations can be used to introduce candidates to positions that they may not have otherwise considered. This not only shows candidates the wide variety positions that could fit their skill set but gives applicants a realistic preview of what the work really looks.

“Use this opportunity to analyze the kinds of projects you’ll potentially be working on and be honest with yourself about whether or not these are aligned with your goals, strengths and desired career path,” says Reed. “While you should be presenting your best work, you should also evaluate whether or not the work is something you’d enjoy long term.”

While you’re the one being assessed for a role, this is also your chance to get deeper insights into the organization.

“Before you get to the in-person interview, the gamification process will let you choose whether or not you’d like to move forward with the process,” says Reed. “Take the time to get a feel for the culture and organizational goals of the company and use this opportunity to make a sound decision about next steps.”

Game on!

Are you ready to take the next step in your job search? Register with College Recruiter to get the latest jobs emailed to you! And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.

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As college students and recent graduates enter the workforce, they will likely meet people who can assist them with their job searches. When these opportunities arise, job seekers be prepared to take advantage of them. While some job seekers may not be the most outgoing in terms of personality, they can still be effective when networking. However, if students and grads don’t understand how to network, they can hurt their chances of building important relationships that can advance their careers. So as job seekers attend networking events, they must be mindful of what not to do. Mike Summers, Director of Employer Relations at Wake Forest University, highlights common networking mistakes to avoid.

“Blindly reaching out without knowing basic information about a person, the kind of details usually found through a quick Google or LinkedIn search, is a red flag signaling a bad start to the networking experience. A wishful connection will be less likely to engage if college students or prospective hires don’t bring any background knowledge to the table.

Expecting a networking connection will “tell me what to do.” Before reaching out, know the information you want. It’s helpful to have an informal script handy. “My name is Sue Smith; I’m a business major and art history minor interested in an entry-level job working in the cosmetic industry in New York. I’m hoping to secure a summer internship. Could you share with me how you got into the industry and any suggestions or recommendations you might have?”

Thinking the number of connections matters. Networking is about relationships, not numbers. Targeted outreach to people who share common interests makes networking effective. Two people may connect in an unlimited number of ways, such as graduating from the same school, being from the same hometown, choosing a similar academic path, or by an interest in a particular career. Whatever it is, a real connection matters.

The first outreach is inappropriate or unprofessional. Treat networking opportunities as professional conversations. It’s easier to move from formal to casual than vice-versa. Having good manners and dressing appropriately (which is very different if you’re interested in a career in journalism versus a career on Wall Street) is critical in creating the first impression that builds your reputation.”

Want to learn more about networking mistakes? Head to our blog and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Mike Summers, Director of Employer Relations at Wake Forest University

With more than 25 years of experience in the private sector, nearly half assisting organizations with recruiting, interviewing, and hiring top talent, Mike Summers, Director of Employer Relations at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has an insider’s understanding of what employers are seeking and helping students and recent grads showcase their academic skills and personal experiences. Wake Forest’s one, university-wide employer relations team means Summers has experience with and supports the employment search for students in all academic areas, teaching and empowering them to articulate the value of their education for today’s employers.