A Guide to College Recruiting as a Smaller Company

Have you ever walked through a bar district and been solicited by staff standing in doorways? They “guard” practically vacant rooms and desperately call out for customers. It always seems like the most popular bars have considerable lines and the less desirable ones remain quite empty.

Let’s take this analogy and apply it to college career fairs. In this example, company booths are the bars, and computer science students are the most sought-after patrons. Many of the larger software companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.) are the busy bars, while smaller and lesser-known companies are the less-trafficked locations. This common scenario represents a monumental problem for these smaller companies that need to successfully recruit top talent to survive.

The company I work for is a 20-person web & mobile app development company that relies heavily on having a strong, growing development team. We recruit almost exclusively from colleges and have been very happy with our recent recruiting classes. I will share some tips to help similar companies recruit successfully.

Make the First Move

Before attending a career fair, most students will review the companies attending and highlight the ones they want to speak with. If you are not highlighted by a student, there is a good chance that student will skip your booth entirely. Sure, you will garner some foot traffic, but it is very helpful to be sought out by students, rather than desperately flagging down passersby or having an empty booth for 30-minute spans.

Prior to attending a career fair, we:

Pull resumes for top candidates — Most schools will have an online system (many use handshake) where you can search for students. Find a few dozen candidates that you think would be a good fit for your company.
Contact students before the event — We then send each of these students a quick intro letter and invite them to stop by our booth. Since you are reaching out to your top candidates, personalize these letters. Mention their past experience and how that would make them a great fit at your company. Then try to include things about your company that would resonate with them. To do this, we often look at the Glassdoor pages for companies that these students have worked at previously. Find common perks and complaints for those companies. This can help you make a convincing case for your company by comparing benefits or emphasizing differences. Don’t do this by specifically mentioning other companies, but only by referencing the characteristics. This “insider info” can really help when seeking out and hiring the top talent.
Work with student groups — To make a bit of a name for ourselves, we work with individual student groups or sponsor on-campus events. This gives us a brief opportunity to discuss our company and meet several students. Most colleges will have groups such as the Society of Women Engineers, ACM, or NSBE that you could work with.
Network with professors and staff — This comes into play when you recruit at the same schools year-after-year. Professors have deeper ties with the students and can encourage students to apply at your company. However, this is often something that needs to be pursued with caution. Remember that professors are more committed to students than they are to you. Additionally, just because they think highly of someone as a student, that does not guarantee that that individual will become a great employee. We have seen this work best with professors who we personally know (or others on our team personally knew) when we were in school. This sort of relationship and trust allows for a much more mutually beneficial relationship. Finally, we try to provide feedback to these professors regarding how their students do in our interviews. This feedback is valued by these teachers and helps us continue to exchange feedback between career fairs. By communicating what sort of things we are looking for, it helps them recommend better candidates, while giving them some guidance into what employers are looking for.

Be Different …

Career fair interactions quickly become quite rote. Student introduces self to recruiter. Student gives recruiter a resume. Student asks about next steps to apply. Recruiter tells student to go to a website. Rinse and repeat.

At larger companies, where recruiting is a full-time role orchestrated by large teams and each career fair brings an unending line of students, these patterns emerge.

Smaller companies need to break this wheel to stand out. For us, this means sending our actual team members to recruiting events and placing the upmost emphasis on being genuine. We can talk specifically about what it is like to work as a developer at our company, because we have all worked as developers at our company. We excitedly discuss the things we are building and how we are building them, because we are truly excited about them. It is not uncommon for us to answer specific questions in these first meetings, such as our favorite project we have worked on at BHW is, what is the office culture like, or even more technical questions like why do we like React Native for mobile app development.

By being able to have these more authentic interactions, you can begin to play up the advantages of working at a smaller company.

… But Not Too Different

Here is where you have to walk a fine line. There is a very good reason why the big-name companies are so popular at career fairs. They offer a more established career path, are more recognized by their peers, are seen as more reliable, and are often the option their parents want them to pick.

Understand these motivations and be certain to reassure candidates that you can also provide these assurances. This can include highlighting the stability of your company, emphasizing your employee benefits, and calling out your company perks. Often smaller companies can compete with the larger companies in these areas and many find ways to more uniquely stand out. Just make sure to communicate this to the students.

Move Quickly

Given the ever-escalating arms race that is hiring software developers, many companies have moved to extending offers earlier and earlier. It is not uncommon for CS majors to have offers before even starting their senior year. In many ways, the best way to get top talent is to find them as sophomores or juniors through internships and then give them full-time offers. Even still, you will want to remain in contact with your top recruits and start your interview process quickly after the career fair. This helps ensure you will get a chance with students who might turn down interviews once they have other offers.

Conclusion

Being a smaller or lesser-known company can make recruiting a challenge. However, there are a number of advantages, which if played up, can result in attracting some of the best available developers. Putting in the extra initial work, polishing your communication to candidates, and moving quickly can greatly benefit your recruiting efforts.

Make the First Move

Prior to attending a career fair, we:

Pull resumes for top candidates — Most schools will have an online system (many use handshake) where you can search for students. Find a few dozen candidates that you think would be a good fit for your company.

Contact students before the event — We then send each of these students a quick intro letter and invite them to stop by our booth. Since you are reaching out to your top candidates, personalize these letters. Mention their past experience and how that would make them a great fit at your company. Then try to include things about your company that would resonate with them. To do this, we often look at the Glassdoor pages for companies that these students have worked at previously. Find common perks and complaints for those companies. This can help you make a convincing case for your company by comparing benefits or emphasizing differences. Don’t do this by specifically mentioning other companies, but only by referencing the characteristics. This “insider info” can really help when seeking out and hiring the top talent.

Work with student groups — To make a bit of a name for ourselves, we work with individual student groups or sponsor on-campus events. This gives us a brief opportunity to discuss our company and meet several students. Most colleges will have groups such as the Society of Women Engineers, ACM, or NSBE that you could work with.

Network with professors and staff — This comes into play when you recruit at the same schools year-after-year. Professors have deeper ties with the students and can encourage students to apply at your company. However, this is often something that needs to be pursued with caution. Remember that professors are more committed to students than they are to you. Additionally, just because they think highly of someone as a student, that does not guarantee that that individual will become a great employee. We have seen this work best with professors who we personally know (or others on our team personally knew) when we were in school. This sort of relationship and trust allows for a much more mutually beneficial relationship. Finally, we try to provide feedback to these professors regarding how their students do in our interviews. This feedback is valued by these teachers and helps us continue to exchange feedback between career fairs. By communicating what sort of things we are looking for, it helps them recommend better candidates, while giving them some guidance into what employers are looking for.

Be Different …

At larger companies, where recruiting is a full-time role orchestrated by large teams and each career fair brings an unending line of students, these patterns emerge.

By being able to have these more authentic interactions, you can begin to play up the advantages of working at a smaller company.

… But Not Too Different

Move Quickly

Conclusion