CAMPUS INTERVIEWS

I hope that all of you enjoyed my last post about the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (PPACA).  Now I would like to turn our gaze back to interviews.  Specifically, I would now like to take a quick look at Campus Interviews.  As always, please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this post, relating to your own experiences.

CAMPUS INTERVIEWS

The Campus Interview is similar to the Screening Interview with a twist.  Like the screening interview, recruiters are interested in finding candidates with a specific skill set.  However, they are also looking for students with great potential.  It is understood that students brought to a company straight out of college will not have the same level of skills as those already in the workforce.  It is the role of the recruiter to prospect or students that have the greatest capacity to learn and grow into the human capital assets the company needs. 

There are many advantages for a recruiter performing their recruiting directly at a school.  Here are just a few:

·         A large pool of interested candidates readily available to pick from. 

·         It is convenient for the candidates to be able to attend the interview.

·         Opportunity to see candidates in an environment they are more comfortable with.

·         Diverse, high quality, well-educated talent is available

·         Brand extension

·         Build a pipeline of future leaders

When preparing for your campus interview, be sure to prepare beforehand.  As with any interview preparation, be sure to review the job descriptions that you are looking for and prepare a set of questions that you intend to ask of each candidate.   Look for students that are confident, prepared, and ready to speak about their experiences in and out of the classroom.  Consider the executive experience of those with leadership positions within student organizations and college athletics.

Campus Job Fair

 Students will attend these job fair events for a variety of reasons; sometimes they are looking for a job, sometimes they are looking for resume feedback; sometimes they are looking to practice their interview skills.  It is your job to separate the true candidates, and to spot the hidden potential in those that are just practicing.  Ask probing questions to see if the student has researched the company and the positions.  Ask questions to determine their interests and qualifications.  Finally, consider preparing a few extra “small talk” questions that you can use to converse with non-candidates that will occasionally visit between candidates.  

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