My Advice to Incoming College First-Year Students - Week #3 – Involvement (Part One)

My Advice to Incoming College First-Year Students - Week #3 – Involvement (Part One)

? In the first two weeks, I’ve covered Mindset heading into school and Identifying mentors before, during, and after school. That advice was built around the idea that going into a college or university environment (or any educational environment for that matter) is something we must prepare for and something that we do not need to do alone. With a strong mindset and people to reach out to for advice, help, or support, students are well equipped to take the action during school that can further lay the foundation for future success.

I want to let you into my perspective a little bit here. I was fortunate enough to get involved early and often during college. I joined Student Government, started a philanthropic organization with some of my closest friends, and participated in several other clubs throughout my time there. Classes provided me with the academic knowledge and skill attainment that comes along with my degree, but a great deal of the knowledge and experience I’ve used professionally was developed in college but outside the classroom. Now, through 15 ? years as a campus recruiter, that experience shapes many of the questions I ask and the skills I assess. Think about these estimated statistics from my campus recruiting career:

·??????Average of 30 campus career fairs each year, in-person, virtual, or both.

·??????Average of 150 students interacted per career fair

·??????30 x 150 x 15.5 = 69,750 students spoken to at career fairs alone

·??????>10,000 applicants each year for internships & entry-level jobs

·??????At a 10% applicant-to-interview rate, that’s still more than 15,000 interviews

·??????At a 10% applicant-to-interview rate, that’s also 139,500 applicants not interviewed

I used a 10% applicant-to-interview ratio to keep the math easy – the real number is likely a little higher over the 15+ years I’ve done this, but you get the point. Among the nearly 140,000 applicants who did not get past the application or resume-review stage are folks who did not meet the minimum qualifications for the role, lacked the necessary skills or experience, or whose resumes did not demonstrate the skills we were seeking. A lot of these applicants did not continue through the process either because they took another job or did not want to move ahead with the role I was interviewing them for.

Processing more than 150,000 applicants, speaking with nearly 70,000 students at career fairs, and hiring hundreds of interns, full-time employees, and part-time employees takes a long time, but the biggest challenge occurs when the resumes represent applicants with similar educational achievement or technical skill sets. Involvement in activities, clubs, sports, organizations, internships, co-ops and work experiences during school is a powerful tie breaker in a competitive talent pool. That is the basis of today’s advice. Let’s use a scenario to illustrate.

I am hiring an intern for my Software Engineering department. The hiring manager lists coding languages C and C++ as being critical to this role. The role can be done remotely, so location is not a concern. Familiarity with Object Oriented Programming is a preferred skill. I will typically receive between 300 and 800 applicants for this internship depending on the year, and if the role is able to be done remotely, this will be on the higher side since the net is wider. I can generally screen out 80% of the resumes based on the technical skills and resume quality alone. Let’s say, for the sake of simplicity, I am down to four candidates.

Candidate #1 is clearly strong academically. Their resume boasts a 3.9 GPA (that Earth Science professor was tough!) and some solid class projects. Technical skills are present. The resume makes up approximately three-quarters of the page.

Candidate #2 is also an academic performer with a GPA of 3.3. Similar class projects demonstrate knowledge of the skills required, but instead of blank space on the resume, this candidate lists an internship or volunteer work as well as involvement with two organizations – a coding club and a cultural organization. As a senior, they took a role as the Vice President of the coding club.

Candidate #3 brings a GPA of 2.8 while working a full-time job and getting involved in several organizations. The resume is a little chaotic with everything they are trying to fit in, and may even go onto a 2nd page. The skill sets are on the resume, though a little more buried among everything else.

Candidate #4 has an average GPA and worked each summer at the same job in their hometown. There are no clubs or organizations listed, no class projects, and the technical skill sets are not apparent.

Which candidate do you think is the one I’m most likely to hire?

I put this question up on a LinkedIn poll and I’m curious to see the results – next week for Part 2, I will reveal some of the responses, how I would approach each interview differently, and an explanation of the human skills (non-technical skills) that on-campus involvement develops.

Check out the poll here!

?Chris W. Fitzpatrick, PHR, SHRM-CP, is the Manager, University Relations and DEI at?Crestron Electronics?and has spent 15+ years in the Talent Acquisition and DEI spaces. Chris is a Professional Speaker, aspiring game show host, and below-average charity golfer. Some of Chris’s presentations can be found on his?YouTube Channel?and can also be found on Instagram as?ChrisFitzpatrickSpeaks.