Students & New Grads - How To Work With (And Which Titled) Recruiters
Kristen Fife she/her
Senior Recruiter **no internships/new grad roles** | Writer/Author (check out my articles!) Purple Squirrel Hunter. (My open roles require US residency unless otherwise noted.) Federal->industry Resume conversions!
It seems like every year I publish some variant of the same info, so here is 2025's. It is a particularly challenging year for new grads, especially immigrants (read on for a section just for you).
If you are a student looking for either your first job out of school or an internship, there are some best practices to follow. I'm going to divide this into two sections: one for almost everyone, and another specifically for students on visas in the US (OPT/CPT). It is important to understand that this information is or formal education - bootcamps are a different beast.
(I will include links at the bottom of this article.)
In 2019, I moved from working for a company internally as a corporate recruiter, to an agency role (employment staffing company, both contract and direct hire roles.) I had a LOT of students reaching out to me about potential roles, and they obviously did not read my profile; they just see "recruiter" and messaged me.
So here is the reality: agency recruiters will most likely NOT be able to help new grads or students looking for internships or with actual full time roles.
The reason is that agencies are paid fees by their clients to fill roles, usually niche positions that are *difficult to fill for internal recruiters*. And, the truth is, entry level roles are NOT difficult to fill. In fact, as you are probably finding out from your own efforts, there are way more candidates than there are jobs. So please, don't reach out to agency recruiters about generic jobs.
Where they *may* be able to help out is with introductions to specific recruiters at your target companies. Once you find a company that HAS an opening you are interested in, AND you have filled out their online application, try and find a "University" or "Campus" recruiter (Generally not "College" recruiter - they are employed by schools to recruit new students). I have an article on how to find recruiters - just use the "university" or "campus" recruiter filter.
If they are a 2nd degree connection, then reach out to your mutual 1st degree connection for an introduction.
Include the job number OR the application URL you used to apply to.
Alternatively, if it is a small company and does not have any openings mentioned, you can use the same methodology to ask for an introduction to either a manager (in your discipline), an HR leader, or even an IC (individual contributor) that might be able to help you. The key is to have a specific ask for your connection, not just a generic, "hi, I was hoping you could help me".
For those international students on visas in the US, there are some additional considerations. First and foremost, assuming you need to target your search for those companies that will eventually be able to sponsor you for an H1-B, it is absolutely vital to know that not every discipline will qualify for an H1-B (or other work visa beyond an OPT or CPT). STEM jobs are almost always a safe bet. But disciplines such as marketing, HR, customer success...not so much. Supply and demand: much more demand for jobs than there are candidates, and the whole point to offering work visas for *any* country is because there is a lack of *qualified* candidates domestically.
OPT candidates: here is a resource that may help you target your job search. Use it to identify companies that file H1-B applications in some quantity and use your discipline as one of the filters. Then target those companies accordingly. You can search by company, date, discipline, and geography.
Links:
Internships:
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Career/Job Fairs:
Working With Recruiters, Networking:
Resumes:
Career Coach for ?? University Students and Young Professionals | Expert in Job Search Strategies & Using AI to Make the Process Easier | Creator of the Happily Landed Program
3 年Fantastic post. So often the information being shared with University students is misinformation or missing altogether, so any direct, actionable tips and tools (such as yours shared here) are so useful.
Embedded Software Engineer @ Qualcomm [PMIC & USB TypeC] | MS in Electrical Engineering
3 年Thank you so much for sharing this post! Appreciate it!