4 Easy Steps to Building Your University Recruiting Program

For growing software companies, establishing an internship program and recruiting recent grads from top universities can be one of the best (and most economical) ways to build out competitive teams.

University recruiting programs are a great way to attract top intern and entry-level talent to your company. They can also be instrumental in creating brand awareness around your company and product so that when students, recent grads, or alums are looking for a new opportunity, they think of you.
The best part is that while building a university recruiting program may seem daunting at first, by following these four easy steps your company can start seeing results in no time!

4 Steps to Establishing Your Own University Recruiting Program

1) Appoint An Owner

The first step is to appoint someone on your team to own the program. This person will be responsible for creating, implementing, and managing the program. The key here is establishing good account management — this person should be the point of contact for all universities, the gatekeeper for all intern and career fair requests, and the go-to for any and all questions (both internal and external) about the program.
By having one point of contact the program will come together in a more cohesive way and the process will remain more streamlined.

2) Connect with Targeted Universities

Chances are, you likely know which colleges and universities in your area you want to target. If not, there are many helpful resources, including U.S News Education’s list of top colleges, which allows you to sort by state, region, enrollment, tuition, and major to find schools that may have the type of candidates you are looking for.
After the university recruiting owner has compiled a list of target universities, he or she should create an account on each of their job portals, sign up for a mailing list, and contact a representative in career services to get acquainted. Doing this work up front will streamline the job posting process and ensure you are always notified about events on campus and career fairs.
For more information on building productive relationships with universities, take a look at this blog post.

3) Stay Active On Campus

The university recruiting owner should remain informed about upcoming events on campus. Career services at universities typically host career fairs every semester along with panel events, mock interviews, and company presentations.
It is always good practice to attend career fairs when you have openings for interns or entry-level candidates. For best practices around attending career fairs, read this this post.
Additionally, company presentations and mock interviews are usually free to participate in and not a huge time commitment. Even If there are no open positions at the time, this can be a great way to stay top of mind with students and career services representatives.

4) Convert Exiting Interns to Brand Ambassadors

Don’t simply cut ties with exiting interns. Employ them as brand ambassadors on campus. As a brand ambassador they will be tasked with creating brand awareness and ensuring their peers know about your company. Brand ambassadors are typically compensated with a small stipend for the semester if they hit certain goals.
Potential goals can include:

• Sign up X number of students to receive your company newsletter.
• Get X number of students to attend your company presentation.
• Present their experience with your company to X number of classes.
• Refer X number of students to visit your booth at the career fair.

Announcing OpenView’s University Recruiting Program

OpenView Labs has been experimenting with an internal university recruiting program for the last year. This quarter we are excited to roll the program out to our portfolio to offer assistance hiring interns and recent grads. Portfolio companies can request an intern for the summer of 2014 using this form and interested students can contact Meghan Maher at [email protected] for more information.

 
Photo by: John Walker