Campus Recruitment in 2023

Jun 09, 2023 - Cat DiStasio

Campus recruitment has changed a lot in recent years. With the pandemic came a rapid shift to virtual recruiting—and with the talent shortage that followed came even more new trends and best practices. One of the things that hasn’t changed much is the confusion around the terminology itself since college admissions departments tend to use similar language to refer to the process of recruiting students to attend their institutions.

In this article, we’ll dive further into the world of college recruitment and cover:

The definition of campus recruitment
The difference between campus recruitment and college recruiting
The benefits of campus recruitment
Campus recruitment event ideas

What is Campus Recruitment?

Definition of Campus Recruitment:

Campus recruitment (noun) is the practice of sourcing and recruiting job applicants from talent pools associated with colleges and universities, including current students, recent graduates, and other alumni. As part of a broader early career talent acquisition strategy, campus recruitment helps organizations identify and hire promising candidates that can be challenging to find without targeting colleges and universities, which typically help students and alums find work.

What is the Difference Between Company Campus Recruitment & College Recruiting

As we mentioned earlier, much of the terminology in campus recruitment is used interchangeably by both college admissions employees and organizations looking to hire students and recent grads. The most common terms with dual meanings are campus recruitment, campus recruiting, and campus recruiter. The result is that it can be difficult to find information about the best campus recruitment strategies and campus recruiting software without wading through admissions-related content.

While colleges and universities hire a “college recruiter” to find prospective students to enroll, organizations may employ a “campus recruiter” to source student talent for early career positions. In fact, we’ve seen an uptick in organizations hiring dedicated recruiters for campus recruiting, suggesting that this may be a growing niche for talent acquisition professionals. In large and growing organizations, campus recruitment can certainly be a full-time job.

The Benefits of Campus Recruitment Today

Adding campus recruiting software that supports virtual recruiting—and virtual events, in particular—can help level up your game against competing employers.

Making virtual tools part of your campus recruiting strategy helps organizations:

Be more proactive in reaching students through technology, which most job seekers prefer;
Offer more options for engagements, so students can choose what works best for their preferences and schedule;
Reach important niche talent pools to support DEIB initiatives (examples: connecting with institutions and student associations for Black engineering students, women in STEM, etc);
Expand their geographic reach, rather than being limited to institutions in your local region; and
Save time while reaching more students and moving them more quickly through the recruiting process.

Examples of Campus Recruitment Strategies

The most effective campus recruitment strategy combines virtual and in-person events. The best part of using campus recruiting software as part of your early career hiring is that you can tailor your approach to meet your needs—and you can adapt and scale your approach as your needs evolve. You can use virtual tools as much or as little as you wish. For students outside your geographic area, you can support the full recruiting funnel with virtual options. For locals, you can use virtual tools to attract and prequalify candidates, and then invite them to meet you in person for group or individual interviews and site tours.

Campus Recruiting Event Ideas

The types of campus recruiting events are limited only by your imagination. Our clients have had great success hosting the following types of events:

Virtual information sessions where candidates can learn about your organization’s mission, vision, and values;
“Meet the Leadership” events where candidates can hear from—and even interact—with your CEO, CTO, or another prominent executive;
Virtual events that spotlight your culture, such as Employee Resource Group events and “Day in the Life” events that share a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like on the job;
Virtual screening events where recruiters and other trained screeners prequalify candidates online before handing them off to a virtual chat or video interview with a hiring manager or, if you prefer, invite them to an in-person event;
Virtual “recruiter office hours” where candidates can drop in with questions about open positions, the recruiting process, or even hop right into a prescreening interview; and
Virtual registration and check-in tools to support more traditional in-person job fairs.

Unlocking the Secrets of Campus Recruitment

No matter the industry, the need for early career talent is ever-present. And employers want to recruit and hire great candidates as quickly and efficiently as possible while controlling costs. Using virtual recruiting solutions as part of your broader campus recruitment strategy offers the best of all possible worlds.

Ready to learn how you can build an effective campus recruitment strategy with Brazen? Let's talk.

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