You've made the best of your company culture, benefits, and the best parts about working for your company. To new grads, it's an attractive company to work for. But the entire recruiting process for these candidates is different than the norm. College graduates are inexperienced professionals, ready to start their careers.

Recruiting the best match for your company is a little more complicated than recruiting the seasoned Marketing Director down the hall. Companies are preparing for an influx of new grads, readying their recruitment teams to find and hire 8.3% more new college graduates. Companies are striving to find new grads to fill the places increasingly left vacant by older boomers and to ease the business burden created by our rapidly recovering economy.

Employers are now looking for candidates with college degrees to fill positions that once didn’t require them. About one-third of the American working population has a bachelor’s degree and most of these college-educated individuals are candidates looking for employment rather than those currently employed. 

When recruiters look for these new grads, however, it’s a different recruiting process. Everything from a dedicated application process to understanding the differences in resumes. Take a look...

Look in the Right Places

It all starts by sourcing the new grads from their turf. The best place to start is on the college campuses where the candidates stem from. Looking to hire for a particular field when spring graduates walk to Pomp and Circumstance? You can find these candidates before they even get their cap and gown. In fact, an overwhelming 97% of companies plan to hire interns this year. 

Why recruit recent college graduates in the first place? Even entry level positions are a commodity employers want to fill, they just need to know where to find them. Christopher Young (@ChrisYoungR), CEO of Async Interview, said:

"They need people knowledgeable in breaking technologies; new graduates often provide that insight at the lowest cost, making it possible for their companies to invest in resources they can use in tandem with this new knowledge to strengthen and grow. Clearly, hiring on campus or offering internships to college students can provide your business with new perspectives."

Entry-Level Resumes Are Different

Recent graduates don’t have the experience or training that would typically fill the professional resume. While they do have some work experience, chances are that experience won’t match the requirements found on a job posting. Internships and relevant coursework take precedence in resumes of recent college graduates. Internships serve as the preliminary introduction to the professional world, and college juniors and seniors are prepared to apply for them and work for these employers. 

Out of the 75% of students that participated in an internship, 61% of them received a job offer out of the experience. So it stands to reason that recruiters look (both internally and externally) for internship experience as a substitute for professional experience on a college grad’s resume. 

One Size Doesn't Fit All

Job requirements can fall under the false assumption that experienced professionals are the primary applicants. For entry level positions, this isn't true. So when recruiters source college candidates it can be difficult to find those that have the necessary prerequisites. There are still things your recruitment team can look for to determine who will grow into the positions that your organization has to offer. Cultural fit remains the first and foremost attribute 43% of recruiters look for. With the often times limited work history new college graduates have, 20% of recruiters look towards relevant courses and another 13% look towards internships.  

Employers need to hire new workers as the anticipation of a round of retirements begins to flicker. In order to compensate for this, they plan to increase their new grad hires this year. They can't just go through this recruiting process as they would with the experienced professional. Corporate recruiters not only have to find these new grads in different ways, they have to evaluate their fit in different ways as well. While cultural fit can be determined similarly, their skills and experience can't be looked at the same way simply because they don't have the same level of professional training as their seasoned counterparts. 

Bio: Kelly Robinson

Kelly Robinson is the founder and CEO of Broadbean Technology, a sourcing andrecruiting technology company. Broadbean Technology has created a strong global presence with offices in the US, Europe and Australia The company remains true to the core fundamentals of its inception: “Keep it light and fun while getting the job done!” Kelly writes about leadership and culture, as well as reducing friction in the candidate experience.