• Paula Beecher
• May 22, 2015
• Newsletter Article

No matter what the size, focus or culture of your organization there are a few things that my career services colleagues and myself would like to suggest so that we can all get the most out of your college recruiting experience! I asked my colleagues from Land-Grants all over the United States to help me form a list and here are a few things that we all agreed would help our processes!

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Career Services and Employers- A Win-Win Situation

As a career services professional working specifically with students in Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences, I have the opportunity to work with employers from Fortune 500 companies to local companies who have a staff of five. No matter what the size, focus or culture of your organization there are a few things that my career services colleagues and myself would like to suggest so that we can all get the most out of your college recruiting experience! I asked my colleagues from Land-Grants all over the United States to help me form a list and here are a few things that we all agreed would help our processes!

• Every University operates a little differently and offers different majors under the umbrella of “agriculture”. If it is your first contact on campus, find out who the career person is in the college and call and have a conversation with us. Let us know a little about you and in turn let us ask you the questions we have so that we can provide the best possible services. If we don’t have the majors you are looking for, we are most likely going to refer you to someone who does.
• Understand “fair and equal access”. All of you want our best and brightest- we get that. However, we are bound by NACE guidelines to offer our students fair and equal access to all job postings. Please familiarize yourself with our guidelines and don’t get angry/disappointed if we can’t give you a list of just our best!
• Understanding some of our majors are huge, some are not. 5 students on your interview schedule could be fantastic! Going back to the first bullet point, we can help manage your expectations.
• We will try and respond to your request in a timely manner, please be patient! It is usually only one of “us” in an office and like you, we often times wear many hats in addition to Employer Relations. Remember your visit usually entails us conferring with students and faculty, facility scheduling offices and catering. Giving us adequate time to prepare for your visit and/or job-posting request is a must! We will try and get you in classrooms where appropriate but remember you are hiring our students expecting technical knowledge, these classrooms are where they are receiving that knowledge; therefore some faculty cannot fit it in their schedule for employer visits!
• Please follow up with students who have applied! They would rather get a "no" than nothing at all! An email, postcard, letter- anything is better than nothing!
• We love working with you and we WANT you on our campuses! It is important for our students to see you and get to know you and your brand. Often times when you are trying to reach our alumni, it is easier when they remember you and/or your company from a campus visit. We understand you can’t visit all Universities every year, but try and make it often! Also remember, we have to work with ALL companies. We will try and build a relationship with you to better serve our students but referring back to bullet two, we have to accommodate all requests, not just the ones from your company!
• For job postings, be sure to consult your career services contact and see what works best for them at their University. Some will need you to post through the campus posting system while others of us would rather a posting we can send out to our students via email. It is best to consult first so that you can get the maximum return on your posting! And remember, please make sure your job description gives adequate information and the follow up/application method you prefer is listed. This will save both of us a lot of email and phone calls!
• There are many "a la carte" services we can offer- career fairs, workshops, interview times, etc. Just ask!

To sum this up let me say thank you for all you do. We all enjoy working with you and appreciate the opportunities and support you give our students and our career services offices. We are here to help; I hope these tips make your fall recruiting season a little more efficient!

If you have questions about building your collegiate recruitment plan, contact your AgCareers.com Account Manager today! Also be sure to check out a listing of upcoming agricultural related career fairs at /careerfairs.cfm.