Before you know it, we’ll be seeing a flood of newly graduated candidates ready to take on the world. And while some college grads take the summer off, many are off and running trying to secure their first professional position with their new degree.
Hiring college graduates presents both opportunity and challenges for your organization. While you might be able to stay within a budget and start a college grad at a lower pay scale, there also comes the challenge of bringing someone into your company without much relevant experience. Experience may be thin so consider a college graduate, like any other hire, as an investment.
How do you make the most out of hiring college graduates?
Since you are dealing with those that in most cases, do not have a professional job history, take time to review what the positives are of their relative experience. When looking at their resume, see if they have internships that were in your industry. If not, see if any of their internships can be useful in your open positions.
Of course, a degree in a major related to your industry or job opening is a plus, but if not, see what their education and background has to offer your company.
Make sure that candidate has taken the time to review your company website and your industry. You’ll very quickly be able to sort through the grads that either just need a job or are taking the time to get acquainted with the open positon and start a career. Or at the very least, are serious about their next step in life.
Great communication skills: The ability to communicate both in person and through other means is critical in this day. Since the inception of social media, we have seen many struggle with good old fashioned communication skills. We have seen business networking event attendance drop in favor of online networking, and in many cases, someone’s first choice is an email over a phone call. Expect great communication skills even from your college grad.
Realize that you are in all likelihood bringing someone in at an entry level position. That provides that candidate with an opportunity but at the same time, you’ll need to make sure you have the proper training awaiting that person when you bring them on board. Without proper training, that person will get frustrated very quickly and you’ll immediately lose what it cost you to bring that person on board in the first place.
Many of us like things done a certain way and the ability to shape a candidate and show them how you company likes things done, can be an opportunity and a chance for that individual to grow and make a difference in your organization.
Hiring employees is an investment and one that should pay off by making your organization grow. That’s no different when you are bringing on a candidate that might not have as much experience. But by talking the time to thoroughly screen and train a candidate, you can make your investment pay off.
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