It’s that time of the year again. Internship season! In some cases, its campus fair season, too. Every year, tons of universities host annual career fairs to help their soon to be graduates land internships and employments with companies big and small.
Companies, on the other hand, flock to these fairs to find eager and fresh faces to join their team. With the popularity of social media sites, however, these fairs may not be the place to be.
Or is it?
Passive graduates content in blasting their resumes through LinkedIn and job networks like Monster aren’t top performers anyway. The A-performers, on the other hand, will be there. They’ll be the ones in suits and ties, resumes in hand.
So yes, if you want to find worthy new hires, it’s still worth it to attend campus fairs. If your company is experiencing hiring challenges, particularly for hard to hire positions, then a campus fair might supply you with a bigger pool of candidates.
But first, you have to know how to spot good candidates in a crowded career fair.
- Look for Students with Life Outside of Academia
Students who engage in more extracurricular activities have been found to grow into more engaged employees, compared to students who practically lived in the library.
Yes, good grades and skills are important. But if you ask recruiters, one of their biggest hiring challenges is finding candidates with good communication skills. You can’t get that from grades! That’s why candidates who have a life after school have a better time adjusting to work. They know how to listen and get along with others.
- If You See Someone Promising, Act Quickly
If you see a promising candidate, act quickly. Remember, you’re in a campus fair! That same candidate will go to 3, maybe 5 more booths before the day ends. What do you think will happen then?
Bring your laptop and interview materials with you. Set up a space in your booth to conduct on the spot interviews. This way, the applicants you like will have moved one step forward in joining your team. They may talk to other people, but taking the initial step with you will make them more eager to see things through.
- Choose Enthusiasm Over Grades
Given the choice between an enthusiastic candidate, and one with good grades but a hazy career plan, always choose the one who shows more enthusiasm.
Smart candidates, perhaps as a result of their high grades, will be busy exploring their options when they graduate. A good percentage of top graduates will choose to work with the highest paying companies, while some of them will be confused—not knowing what to do in their life. Do you really want that trouble? Are their talents worth a bidding war?
You can get someone good but very dedicated, then train him to be better as he grows with your company.
Attention To Detail, The Most Underrated Factor to Consider When Pooling Candidates
What’s the first thing you consider when you’re looking for new recruits in a campus fair? Grades? Related experience, projects or academic accomplishments?
There’s something far greater than those three.
Attention to detail.
What do you need in an intern or new hire anyway? Since you’re not going to trust them right away to do critical work, what good will a 4.0 GPA be?
With interns, what you need is someone reliable to turn in completed work that’s not full of errors. For that, you need someone with an eye for details. Previous experience and grades only come second to that.
Your team doesn’t want to be bothered with double checking the interns work every single time, right? They don’t want to constantly repeat their instructions, right? The best new-hire is someone eager to learn and a tad obsessive-compulsive.
© 2015 Incedo Group, LLC
