College Recruting: A Case Study

This paper reviewed the practices used in college recruitment at Company M. These procedures are evolving and improving. Although some problems exist, they are generally good and are very creative in some areas. The professional and ethical practices are maintained at highest standards in all areas, with an attempt to get the relevent information up front to the students to be fair and prevent any misunderstandings or anxieties. The main area for improvement is in advance planning. It is imperative to obtain upper and lower-bound quantities of openings by about January 15 at the latest. This allows timely offers to be extended to at least the minimum number of students. The date for information sessions and on-campus interviews should be planned well in advance with the college placement office (typically about fourteen months ahead). Open house sessions for follow ups to the on-campus interviews should be scheduled in advance so that promising candidates can be invited at the time of that interview. In a different vein, the extent to which the personnel department can obtain experienced engineering managers to participate in the on-campus interviews and the prior information briefings, decidedly enhances the quality of the recruiting effort. A concerted program to more fully exploit the summer employment of third-year students would also be very valuable to Company M. Properly done, these techniques and practices are beneficial not only to the new graduates, but to the recruiting firm as well.