Going to college and completing a degree is like a lifetime dream coming true. Indeed, it is. That’s because you’re among those people that got an opportunity to study for an undergraduate course at some college or university. Also, you didn’t drop out in the sophomore year or later but continued studying the course.
Obviously, such an achievement is not small. It merits a pat on your back. However, getting a college degree isn’t the end of your world or your life. As a matter of fact, it’s a mere transition from one phase of life to another.
As famous American motivational therapist and author Dr. Stephen R. Covey rightly said, you’ll gradually move from a state of dependence to interdependence. While dependence was on your parents, graduating from college signifies interdependence because now, you can be an asset to society and yourself.
That’s the reason every graduate, regardless of what degree they hold or would complete, tries for a job. The first job is usually your gateway to a grand career. Hence, it is only fair that you would select the best job that matches your education, interest and whatever skills you learn at college.
While some students await graduation, others actually don’t waste the few vital months to pass and look for jobs. Instead, they make the best use of campus hiring opportunities. Often, these students also find jobs much before they actually graduate from college or university. This helps progress in life faster.
Therefore, I suggest that you should also look for excellent job openings during campus placement programs.
What is Campus Recruitment?
If you’re about to enter a college, maybe you’re unaware of campus hiring programs and procedures. Therefore, I will explain the meaning of campus hiring and why it’s important for your career.
The American education system and the corporate world of this country have a sort of understanding that companies, small and large to giant multinational organizations, will hire students directly and even before they complete the degree. This system works well for both employers and the college or university.
While college students don’t have to take the hassles of looking for jobs upon graduation, employers can hire the best talent and save recruitment costs considerably. It’s a win-win situation for both. A college or university also benefits because they become popular for one or more of their specific courses since it becomes the best for students to get jobs.
In fact, campus hiring is very popular in the USA. Here’re some facts and figures that you should know about campus hiring. That would show how you could get hired at college during your final year of studies.
Stats About Campus Hiring
The US National Center for Education Statistics reveals that in 2021, some four million students from various fields of studies graduated from colleges across the USA. About 20 per cent of these were foreign students that either left the USA for their home countries or took jobs here.
Nearly 70 per cent of all American companies do campus hiring. This means they send a senior official or a team to various colleges and universities in the USA to look for the topmost talent in the fields they want for their businesses. They do so for two reasons.
Firstly, due to the stiff competition in hiring top talent: if they don’t hire on campus, the student would most likely join a rival. And secondly, it’s a way to engage a student and get them interested in that specific company and field of study as prospective hires.
This isn’t really an easy task. That’s because there’re dozens of American universities that have the topmost standards in the world. This makes it imperative for the campus hiring team or personnel to select only the very best.
Hurdles in Campus Hiring
As a matter of fact, each of the 70 per cent of American companies doing campus hiring faces huge obstacles. Hence, they have to be very proactive and alert while doing campus hiring.
The first hurdle is obviously getting the right student as their future employee. Often, students that have excellent track records and grades might not match the skills that an employer looks for. Yet, someone with lower grades but with the right blend of skills could be more suitable.
Secondly, the recruiting team has also to make sure that the student doesn’t get another offer- often with higher pay and perks- from a close competitor. Unless the students sign a contract with any company, they’re free to look for other employers.
Thirdly, relocations. Some students won’t relocate easily to the place of employment. Instead, they might have some other places in mind to make a career and settle while foreign students could be waiting to fly back home. This makes it all the more difficult to find students that would actually take an offer from the employer and deliver what is necessary.
Pros of Campus Hiring
Now, let’s look at the pros of campus hiring for students. As I mentioned earlier, 70 per cent of all American companies engage students through campus hiring. This simply means that every student who is in the final year of college or university can find a job if they have the proper skills and aptitude.
Also, campus hiring can jumpstart your career without the need for an internship in some cases. It puts you directly into the workforce without any need to remain an unemployed graduate for any span of time. This could accelerate your career growth and help in your personal life too.
Cons of Campus Hiring
At the same time, there’re also some cons or flipsides of campus hiring. The first is that campus recruiters can’t hire every single graduate of that institute. Hence, those who don’t find jobs through campus hiring or don’t wish to avail of campus hiring facilities have to hunt for employment on their own skills and merits.
According to a report, a whopping 45 per cent of all fresh graduates from American colleges go without employment. That’s because not every organization in the USA requires a lot of people with the same skill.
Furthermore, a lot of students also believe that campus hiring doesn’t serve their purpose because they simply aren’t interested in working for a specific organization. They either look for a break after completing the degree or wish to await other employers in the same field.
However, if you’re among those students that would like to avail of campus hiring and find a good job just as you leave college, continue reading further. I will discuss in detail how you could get a job while at college.
On-Campus, Off-Campus Jobs v/s Campus Hiring
Before I proceed, here’s something I will clarify. Campus hiring isn’t the same as on-campus or off-campus jobs.
On-campus and off-campus jobs are those you take as a student and don’t really require any specific skills. They needn’t be related to your course or studies and can simply be based on your personal interests or hobbies. These are generally part-time jobs and pay some money to work during spare time.
Campus hiring jobs, in contrast, are full-fledged and regular jobs. That means you will become a full-time employee with an organization that hires you. This implies you would get a fixed salary and perks while being on the payroll of the employer.
Furthermore, campus hiring jobs are not about internships. Meaning you wouldn’t be joining an organization merely for training or fine-tuning the skills you acquire from a course. I will repeat campus hiring jobs are full-time jobs to become a regular employee while joining the American workforce.
How to Prepare for Campus Placements?
Obviously, you would wish to learn how to get a campus hire job. Continue reading as I guide you through the various steps to take to get one of those coveted campus hiring jobs.
1. Agreements of Your College or University
Most colleges in the USA have agreements with placement agencies and companies for hiring their students upon graduation.
Therefore, the best thing to do is find out from your college or university admin office or registrar’s office whether there’re such agreements. And get a list of companies that hire every semester from your college.
This will give you a very clear idea about the type of students that companies hire during their campus recruitment programs. In some cases, employers could only be interested in students from a specific field of study.
However, that needn’t be a deterrent. You, too, can apply for a job at that company, albeit in a field of your choice that matches your degree and areas of interest. Such placement agencies and companies would definitely be open to your applications and can consider you for any suitable vacancy.
2. Get Your Stuff Together
The second thing to do for getting a job through campus hiring is to get your stuff in place. That means keeping copies of all your academic records and other proof ready to give to a prospective employer.
Giving all the documents at the time of campus hiring definitely has an impact on the employer. Since you’re able to prove your academic record, an employer could give some preference to your application.
Other than academic records, also gather all your college notes and project papers. Often, these prove very handy during an interview or even to apply for a job during campus hiring. In the absence of a degree and work experience, your knowledge about a field can provide a lot of leverage during campus hiring.
3. Know the Faculty
This is a very important tip. Therefore, work on it immediately. Get to know the faculty at your college or university. You can acquaint with them and develop a healthy working relationship as a student. This means you can ask them to resolve any doubts about a subject or even find more if you’re looking for a specific job.
Knowing your faculty has one more distinct advantage. You can request them if they will be your references for a job and in future. Having faculty members’ professional references comes in very handy. Sometimes, the official screening of your application could know the same faculty member personally and hence, give you some preference.
Secondly, the very fact that you’re citing a faculty member as your reference serves as direct proof of your interest in that specific field of study. This causes a desirable impression on the employer.
4. Your LinkedIn Profile
In 2022, more than 830 million professionals spanning over 200 countries were using LinkedIn. It is the largest networking website for professionals. Often, LinkedIn is compared with Facebook, which is the largest social media network in the world. However, LinkedIn has more to do with businesses and professionals rather than mere social networking.
Having a superb profile on LinkedIn helps employers to notice you quickly when they’re about to engage students for campus hiring.
The better your profile, the greater your chances of landing a fantastic job during campus hiring. In fact, campus recruitment team members will contact you and come looking for you as a prospective hire.
Therefore, I suggest that you spend enough thought and time creating that amazing LinkedIn profile. The website accounts for at least one hire somewhere in the world every six seconds.
You can easily realize its potential from these figures. Also, look for vacancies on LinkedIn. Create posts related to your field that would attract the attention of employers.
5. Define Your Skills and Role
One of the major steps to be taken if you’re serious about campus hiring jobs is to define your skills and the role that you wish to play at any organization. That’s because the needs of an organization that does campus hiring have to sync with what you have to offer as a prospective employee.
Obviously, we study a lot of things at college and university. However, not all of that is useful for a specific job that you might want. Again, you would be majoring in a specific subject and also have some things that you wish to do and don’t wish to do.
Therefore, the best thing is to find what skills you wish to offer and how it would serve the needs of an employer that does campus hiring at your college. Fine-tune your knowledge and skills in that field.
6. Discuss With College/ University Staff
Usually, every college and university has some staff that liaises with recruiters for campus hiring. You can find this easily by asking at the registrar’s office. Approach these persons or the registrar and ask them if it’s possible to suggest your name to these companies for campus hiring.
If you have a decent record in academics and as a student, there’s every chance that such officials at the college or university would assist you. They might guide you on how to go about the process or even help you meet the concerned person. However, this is something you would have to tackle on your own and go about with lots of skills.
7. Attend Campus Placement Drives
Employers usually hold a campus placement drive at some common venue. This means students from various colleges will attend these drives, learn about the organization and apply for various vacancies that exist. These can be quite a rewarding experience for you.
Therefore, find out whether there’re any campus placement drives. Since these placement drives aren’t really skills-specific, you can look for various jobs of your choice in that organization. This gives you an opportunity to apply for jobs even before graduating from college.
Then we also have campus placement drives that’re done by multiple companies over a three-day period or even a weekend. In such cases too, you could apply for several jobs at one go. Usually, most students that apply for jobs during these processes get at least a couple of offers.
8. Prepare Well for Campus Hiring
And finally, campus hiring depends on how well you present yourself both to an official as well as at a formal interview. Remember, the jobs that you get from campus hiring also come with the same tag of procedures as regular jobs. That means you have to provide a Resume, appear for an interview, possibly give written tests and prove your skills.
Therefore, prepare for a campus hire job similar to how you would prepare for competing for any other vacancy. It’s also worth remembering that campus hiring jobs often are hotly contested. You can expect more than your fair share of competitors from various colleges and, perhaps with better academic records, vying for these jobs.
In such cases, the only thing that would make you successful is how well you market yourself. It’s not difficult to land a campus hiring job if you prepare well, aware of what jobs you want to take and the roles that you wish to play. In fact, with some preparation and good records, you would be able to easily crack an interview and land that job.
Your Benefits from Campus Hire Jobs
Getting a job from campus hiring has its own sunny sides. You can benefit a lot from them. That’s the reason I suggest you follow these eight tips and tweaks that I provide earlier in the article.
Getting a campus hire job comes with a slew of benefits. I will list some of these for your information.
Prestige in College and Society
Bagging a job through campus hiring is indeed prestigious. It means that you have excellent skills in that specific field of study. Your success will bring you some prestige among peers as well as in society.
It also speaks of your success and the way that you could handle an interview successfully. Impressing an employer is not easy, especially when they have wider choices to select from. Therefore, you get some richly deserved prestige for such an achievement.
Faster Student Debt Payoffs
You can pay off your student debt faster when you land a campus hiring job. That’s because there’s no short or long period of unemployment from the time you graduate from a college or university. Since you would work immediately, it is possible to pay off student debt earlier.
Unpaid student debts can set back life by at least seven years. As a matter of fact, an average student in the USA leaves college with around $35,000 as unpaid debt. This debt comes in the form of money borrowed for higher education.
Faster Career Growth
In most cases, you would be working in the area of your choice with a campus hiring job. That means you have ample opportunities to learn and fine-tune the skills that’re necessary for growth.
If the first employer doesn’t have any growth opportunities for any reason, you can look for other jobs using the skills and educational degrees from the college. You can put your career on the fast track with a campus hiring job.
Opportunities to Freelance
Once you start working as an employee, you can also start working as a freelancer. That’s because you have the necessary skills and can easily acquire more in your field, if necessary.
In fact, some 53 million Americans are already working as freelancers, either full-time or part-time. Freelancing during your after-office hours helps to earn a second source of income. And over a period of time, you could become a full-fledged freelancer without the need for full-time employment from any organization.
An Impressive Resume
Listing an employer as your campus hire job and highlighting the skills you presented and experience you gained definitely adds value to your Resume when you go looking for newer jobs, especially at higher pay or position.
With some experience, it’s possible to apply for high-paying jobs as well as higher positions. This depends on how best you use a campus hire job for your career growth.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, I add that campus-hire jobs are definitely worth trying. In 2022, the US has an unemployment rate of 5.87 per cent. Though there are about 10 million assorted vacancies, there’re about eight million unemployed Americans too. Taking a job through campus hiring means that you can avoid the risk of staying home for a long without work and pay.