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Table of Contents


Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..2


Introduction………………………………………………………………………………3


Experiential Essay – University Relations at Freudenberg-NOK…………………..4


Connections Essay – The Labor Market and College Recruitment………………14


References……………………………………………………………………………..21


Appendix A……………………………………………………………………………..23


Appendix B……………………………………………………………………………..27


Appendix C……………………………………………………………………………..29


Appendix D……………………………………………………………………………..42


Appendix E……………………………………………………………………………..46
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                                     Abstract

       This document describes my experiences working in the Human

Resources department at Freudenberg-NOK in Plymouth, Michigan. I spent the

summer researching and documenting the company’s current college recruitment

activity and made suggestions for improvements in the future. I created

documents detailing how best to recruit at four different universities and

presented my findings at the Human Resources Conference in September.

       In addition, this paper examines the labor market as it pertains to the

college recruitment process. I discuss the supply and demand for college

students, competition, and marketing. Finally, I describe how the Internet has

changed and improved the college recruitment process by increasing the

interaction between employers and potential job candidates.




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                                     Introduction

       Building a long-lasting relationship between a university and a corporation

requires a lot of time and effort from all parties involved. Corporations must be

consistent in establishing a presence on campus so that students come to

recognize the company name and are well-informed as to their business

practices. Starting early is important as keeping a student informed and

interested throughout their college career will greatly increase their desire to work

for a certain company. Students must also do their part and make sure they know

what impresses recruiters so that they will have a better chance of landing their

first job out of college. With the number of students graduating each year

expected to grow in the future, the competition amongst students for entry-level

positions is becoming fiercer.

       Although Freudenberg-NOK does not have many entry-level positions

available, there is still an interest in recruiting recent college graduates. Many

facilities use co-op students during the year to help in the engineering

departments. However, the majority of them are not hired upon graduation.

Freudenberg-NOK’s current recruiting activity is very inconsistent among the

facilities; some HR managers recruit from three or more schools, while others do

not recruit at all, but prefer to use recruiting firms to find the workers they need.

Establishing a solid university recruiting program will allow Freudenberg-NOK to

access all the talent and ideas that young people have to offer and will be

extremely beneficial in the long run.




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         Experiential Essay – University Relations at Freudenberg-NOK

       I completed my summer internship in the Human Resources department

of Freudenberg-NOK in Plymouth, Michigan. While not exactly a household

name, Freudenberg-NOK (FNGP) is a German and Japanese joint-venture that

is very well respected in the auto parts supplier industry. My job at FNGP was to

research the company’s current college recruitment policy and make suggestions

for the future to improve the process. I interviewed the Human Resource division

leads to find out which schools they visit and what they look for when they recruit

college students, then based my research on their responses. At the end of the

summer, I presented my project at the Human Resources conference at the

Plymouth facility in front of about thirty HR professionals. I left Freudenberg-NOK

knowing that I had produced something that they will be able to use for many

years and which will hopefully benefit the company in the long run.

       Freudenberg & Co. of Germany has been partners with the NOK

Corporation of Japan for nearly 45 years, and in 1989, the two companies

decided to combine strengths to form Freudenberg-NOK, now one of the world’s

leaders in sealing products and vibration control technology. With nearly 40

locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, Freudenberg-NOK

also owns the following brands: Corteco (aftermarket products), Dichtomatik

(seals), Simrit (sealing products), Vibracoustic (vibration control), and Flexitech

(brake hoses), among others. Freudenberg-NOK (FNGP) attributes much of its

success to its Growtth® (Get Rid of Waste Through Team Harmony) program,

which emphasizes teamwork and communications to increase effectiveness and




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efficiency. As part of the Growtth® program, FNGP also practices Six Sigma,

which allows for no more than 3.4 defects per million units produced, and many

FNGP plants fall below that level. FNGP has also begun to diversify into several

new markets, including oil and gas, aerospace, fluid power, medical products,

and semiconductors, among others.

        The facility in Plymouth, Michigan, where I worked is Freudenberg-NOK’s

headquarters, and houses administration, sales, customer support, engineering,

and research and development departments. I worked for thirteen weeks in

Human Resources under Sarah O’Hare, Vice President of Human Resources,

studying FNGP’s college recruitment practices. With input from Sarah and Sherry

Gray, who is the Director of Organizational Development, I researched the best

schools in the country in engineering and business disciplines to determine which

ones would best fit with the company’s needs. The main goals of my project

were, firstly, to limit the number of schools Freudenberg-NOK recruits from in

order to increase its recruiting power and effectiveness, and secondly, to

broaden horizontal recruiting so that HR representatives would recruit for the

company as a whole at job fairs, not just for their own facility. My other goals in

completing the project were as follows:

        Document which schools FNGP currently recruits from, how many co-ops
    •

        and interns are used at each facility, and how many co-ops and new

        college graduates have been hired in recent years.

        Determine what Human Resource managers look for when they interview
    •

        recent graduates for entry-level positions.




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        Research the top schools in the nation, determine which schools to target,
    •

        find the best ways to increase name recognition for FNGP and develop a

        recruiting strategy for each campus.

Reaching these goals led to suggestions for a more streamlined and simple

companywide recruitment process, as well as an opportunity for improved

horizontal recruiting.

   In order to determine the best schools in the country, I had to spend a

significant amount of time on the Internet looking through university ranking

systems at various institutions. In the end, I used five different sources in my

research:

        U.S. News & World Report: This magazine publishes an annual, extensive
   •

        university ranking list in almost every academic discipline, known as

        America’s Best Colleges. The rankings consider peer and recruiter

        assessments, acceptance rate, faculty resources, and research activity. I

        used their rankings for both the engineering and business disciplines.

        The Wall Street Journal: This source was used to research the top
   •

        American business schools. This list is mostly based on recruiter

        assessment, and also ranks universities based on regional recruiting,

        minority recruiting, and the recruiting of women.

        BusinessWeek: BusinessWeek’s rankings of business schools are
   •

        determined through three data sources: a student survey, a recruiter

        survey, and an intellectual capital score, which is based on the number of

        articles published in scholarly journals by a school’s faculty members.



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       Academic Ranking of World Universities: This website ranks universities
   •

       worldwide, both generally and in the field of engineering. To obtain the

       rankings for North American schools, I simply removed the international

       schools from the list. This ranking system places heavy emphasis on

       Nobel Prize winners among alumni and staff, published authors in

       respected journals, highly cited researchers, and size of the institution. As

       a result of this, the ARWU places schools in a somewhat different order

       from the other rankings systems.

       Graduateshotline.com: This is most likely the least reputable of the
   •

       sources I used, but its rankings of engineering programs do not differ too

       much from the other lists. This website compiled its rankings using

       “various resources on the Internet”, student comments, and data on

       funding and research.

These five sources helped me gain a better understanding of which schools

would be the best for FNGP to target. However, I needed more information

before I could make suggestions on this matter, so I turned to the HR division

leads and managers to ask them about their current practices.

       The best way for me to find out what Freudenberg-NOK needs from its

relationships with universities was to talk to the HR personnel at the other FNGP

facilities and get their input. I also wanted to ask them about what they like to see

in the college students they interview in terms of personal qualities and

education. For the first part, I sent a mass e-mail on my first day asking HR

managers and leads what schools they recruited from, how many students they




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hired recently, and what majors those students had. Since many people did not

respond to the e-mail, I decided to contact each of the division HR leads by

telephone to ask some more in-depth questions about their usage of co-ops and

interns and which schools they have co-op relationships with, if any. I put all of

this information together in a comprehensive Excel spreadsheet with my

research on universities (Appendix A). In order to find out what HR managers

look for when they recruit, I developed a short questionnaire (Appendix B) asking

such questions as: Do you prefer to fill entry-level positions with new college

graduates or someone with 2-3 years experience? How much does a candidate’s

alma mater affect your hiring decision? Do you generally recruit from larger

schools or smaller ones? I also provided a short list of qualities and

characteristics that are important to managers and asked for them to be ranked

on a scale from 1-5. These were taken from “The Smart Interviewer” by Bradford

D. Smart, who compiled a list of important attributes for hiring managers to use

as a summary of a candidate. These rankings were put into another spreadsheet

which I used to determine the average score for each characteristic and which

ones were rated the highest overall. In the end, motivation, initiative, and integrity

were rated the highest, while creativity, knowledge of the company, and first

impression received the lowest rating.

       Based on the information I gained from the HR leads, I altered the focus of

my research to schools that would be easier to establish a relationship with, but

would also be beneficial to FNGP. At the time of the phone interviews, I had

chosen three preliminary schools I wanted to investigate further: The University




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of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and the

University of California at Irvine. I had chosen these schools based on their

geographic location (one east coast, one Midwest, and one west coast), their

academic programs, and their current relationships with FNGP facilities. A

number of facilities recruit at UMASS – Lowell, the Plymouth facility recruits from

U-M, and the Santa Ana, CA facility visits UCI. However, since most of FNGP’s

facilities are in the Midwest or New England areas, UCI would not have been a

practical choice. When I presented these ideas to Sarah, she was very

enthusiastic about U-M, since it is in the company headquarters’ back yard, but

did not want to continue with UMASS – Lowell. Therefore, I went back to the

rankings systems and conducted more research.

       Some of the most interesting information I obtained from my interviews

with the HR leads had to do with the number of co-ops and recent graduates

hired in the last five years. The ten leads have used 43 co-ops in the recent

years, but have only hired six of those upon graduation, or only 14%. In addition,

25 new college graduates were hired in the last five years which, including the six

co-ops, totals 31 recent graduates hired. However, only 16 of those are still with

the company today, for a 52% retention rate. Despite these numbers, most of the

HR leads told me they prefer to hire co-ops rather than someone fresh out of

college because co-ops have already been trained and can start contributing

immediately.

       Another telling statistic is that 12 FNGP facilities actively recruit from 20

different universities, which does not include multiple facilities visiting the same




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school (for example, at least four reported recruiting at UMASS – Lowell, while

three visited Kettering University). Also there are some facilities that do not

recruit at all, while some visit four or more colleges. These inconsistencies are

more harmful than helpful to the company since the facilities cannot focus their

efforts on one or two campuses and are not recruiting for the company as a

whole.

         After obtaining all the relevant information from the HR community and

conducting my research, I presented my findings to Sarah and Sherry. Together,

we decided on four schools to target: The University of Michigan, Purdue

University, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), and the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These decisions were based on

three criteria:

         Academic ranking: All four schools are ranked in the top 15 engineering
   •

         programs by each of my sources. MIT was the top ranked program by

         each source. All four also benefit from top business programs.

         Geographic location: Most FNGP facilities are located in the Midwest or
   •

         New England areas, so three of the four schools can cater to those

         locations. And the two Georgia locations benefit from a relationship with

         Georgia Tech.

         Current programs with FNGP facilities: FNGP already has a presence
   •

         established at three of the four choices (U-M, Purdue, and Georgia Tech).

Sherry was of the opinion that MIT was a lofty goal for the company, but Sarah

saw no reason why FNGP should not be successful there. I believe that it will




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take the most work to establish a presence at MIT and to get the students to

want to work for FNGP. In the end, we decided to focus our efforts on U-M,

Purdue, and Georgia Tech and keep MIT in mind for the future when the

recruiting program is more defined.

       Once we had decided on our target schools, I had to look at each one’s

Career Services website to find their corporate relations policies. I researched

the best ways to establish a presence and market the company’s brand on each

campus, how to get interns and co-ops, when to visit the schools for job fairs,

and any other opportunities that made the university unique. Once I obtained all

of this information, I created a handbook that will be distributed to the HR

community so they know all of their recruiting options (Appendix C). Some of the

highlights of the handbook include:

       Georgia Tech: There are four different co-op programs for students:
   •

       Undergraduate co-op, Graduate co-op, Undergrad Professional Internship,

       and Work Abroad. Corporations can also become a Career Services

       Partner and sponsor the university in return for added recruiting benefits.

       MIT: MIT’s only co-op opportunity is called the Undergraduate
   •

       Professional Opportunities Program, which is for engineering sophomores.

       The Career Services website also sells advertising space to corporations

       to announce job openings or information sessions.

       Purdue: Purdue has recently launched the 21st Century Partnership
   •

       Program, where corporations make an annual donation in return for

       preferred placement at job fairs and other recruiting benefits. The “Talk




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       With a Pro” program is a database of professionals who are willing to talk

       to students about their careers and field of interest.

       University of Michigan: U-M is complicated since each of the colleges
   •

       (School of Engineering, Ross School of Business, etc.) has its own Career

       Services office, in addition to the one that serves the university as a

       whole. Each one also uses a separate online recruiting system.

       Corporations can sponsor student events through the College of

       Engineering and have the company name on all promotional materials.

Although this information will have to be updated to show new job fair and

information session dates, FNGP will be able to use it for a long time for their

recruiting needs.

       After completing all of my research, I gave a presentation at the Human

Resources Conference to tell the HR community about my suggestions

(Appendix D). It was received with mixed results; several of the leads were

unhappy that the schools they visit were not chosen, and some said they would

not stop their current recruiting practices because they recruited locally which

benefited their community. However, Sarah reinforced the benefits of recruiting

from limited schools and although some aspects of my project may be modified,

it will be enacted in the near future. The most positive effect my presentation had

was that they all agreed to broaden their horizontal recruiting and interview

students for each other.

       The other interesting job I completed during my time at Freudenberg-NOK

was to look at the company’s voluntary employee turnover going back to 2004.




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This provided interesting insight into my recruiting project because it taught me

about FNGP’s employee retention and how the company could benefit from

better university recruiting. In 2005, there was a mix-up in the headcount

reporting; therefore both the headcount and turnover numbers were inaccurate. I

went through the headcount reports and corrected the errors, then calculated the

turnover. Normally, the turnover is calculated on a year to date, annualized basis.

However, I found that calculating on a single month, non-year to date basis

yielded more accurate numbers. There is very little pattern to be found in the

results; about the only consistent data is the spike in August when many hourly

employees return to school. The most common reason for people leaving the

company the last four years was another job opportunity (30% reported this as

their reason for leaving). It was very interesting for me to look at the turnover

while researching university recruiting because it showed me that FNGP could

definitely benefit from having solid relationships established to bring in new talent

and hopefully lower the turnover rate.

       Freudenberg-NOK’s current recruiting activity is very inconsistent. Some

facilities do not have many entry-level positions available, therefore a limited

number of new college graduates have been hired in recent years. Although

most HR managers say that it is easier to hire co-ops than new graduates

because less training is required, very few co-ops have been hired in the last

three years. Reducing the number of schools the company recruits from will

make the process much easier and more effective. Forging relationships with a

limited number of universities will be mutually beneficial for the company and the




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schools themselves in the long run, as FNGP can focus its efforts and resources

on getting exactly what it needs while supporting the university financially. A

result of limiting the number of targeted schools will be better horizontal

recruiting, wherein managers recruit for the company as a whole, rather than for

individual facilities. I feel that this strategy will strengthen Freudenberg-NOK’s

recruiting ability and will help build a higher retention rate in the future.



         Connections Essay – The Labor Market and College Recruitment

       During the course of my internship, I examined the college recruitment

practices of Freudenberg-NOK and how best to recruit from certain schools. This

paper will study the labor market in the college recruitment process and the

economic factors that affect it, such as supply and demand, marketing, and

competition. There are many factors which impact the number of students

seeking work upon graduation and the demand for corporations looking to hire

those students. Both employers and job candidates must market themselves to

one another, a process in which the Internet has taken a prominent role. The

labor market, as it pertains to college recruitment, is constantly changing as

corporations compete to hire new, young talent and students compete for their

first job in the real world.

       The level of demand for recent graduates is different for each company.

Those companies that do not have many entry-level positions available will have

relatively low interest in hiring students as they typically have little real work

experience. Some companies have higher requirements for entry-level positions




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than others; for example, some jobs require 2-3 years work experience in

addition to a degree from a 4-year institution, while others will only require a

degree. Many hiring mangers simply prefer to hire someone with a few years’

experience over a new college graduate because they require less training and

can contribute right away. In addition, there are many costs to take into account

when recruiting college students that could affect the level of demand. For

example, a firm has to consider the costs of registering for a job fair, reserving a

space for an information session, sponsoring the university financially, possible

relocation costs for new hires, and purchasing promotional materials and

advertising space. Some firms may find it simpler and less expensive to use a

recruiter to find potential candidates, which would lessen the demand for

graduates. However, larger firms that have the resources to actively recruit and

hire recent graduates will have a higher demand. If the overall demand for new

graduates increases, then the cost of hiring will increase as well, as firms

compete to hire the best students. The demand for students at certain

universities is also higher than at others because of their academic reputation.

For example, demand for students from Harvard or Yale is higher than for those

from Wayne State University because many firms believe students at more

prestigious schools will perform better on the job. Of course, much of this

depends on the pool of candidates available, which has been growing rapidly in

recent years.

       The number of graduates annually entering the workforce has increased

steadily as more options are available for young people who are deciding on a




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school, such as two year programs or community colleges. In addition, more

young people are realizing the growing benefits of having a college degree.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2004 and 2014, almost 14

million jobs are projected to be filled by workers with a bachelor’s degree or

higher and who are starting a job for the first time (Crosby and Moncarz 43). The

incentive to obtain a college degree is rising, as those with degrees earn

significantly more than those with only a high school diploma, as illustrated by

Chart 1 (Appendix E, Crosby and Moncarz 44). This graph clearly shows that

workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher earn a substantial amount more than

those who do not attend or complete college. Also, workers who attend college

are less likely to be unemployed, and therefore will make more money in the long

run than those who do not complete their education. The 2005 unemployment

rate for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher was only 2%, half the rate for

those with only a high school diploma (4%), and significantly less than the 7% for

those who dropped out of school (Crosby and Moncarz 45). Obviously, there is

great incentive to complete college and obtain a degree. As more people become

aware of the advantages of having a college degree, more and more will attend

college, thereby increasing the number of graduates entering the workforce. If

this happens, the cost of hiring a student will decrease, and corporations will

have fewer problems finding good employees that suit their needs.

       In a perfectly competitive market, neither the consumer nor the producer

has the power to influence market price, which produces a completely efficient

outcome. The labor market as it pertains to college recruitment, however, is not a




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perfectly competitive market. The “goods” in this market, or the students who are

seeking work, are not perfect substitutes for one another. Each candidate has his

or her own strengths and weaknesses and can bring something unique to their

future employer. By the same token, firms are not perfect substitutes either.

Working for Ford is a completely different experience than working for Google,

for example. For this reason, corporations will hire those candidates they feel will

benefit their company the best, while graduates will accept the offer from the

company they feel is the best fit for them. Also, prices in this situation are not set

by the market, as they are in a perfectly competitive market. Firms can offer

whatever salary they wish to the candidates they want to hire. If other companies

want to hire the same students, they must make a better offer than their

competitors. However, there is no perfect or complete information in this

situation, and firms do not know what salaries graduates are being offered by

other firms. All of these factors violate the definition of a perfectly competitive

market, and the competition in this situation therefore becomes extremely steep.

       There are three groups in competition in the college recruitment process:

students looking for jobs, firms hoping to hire those students, and universities

trying to bring corporations in to recruit. Students must present themselves well

to recruiters in information sessions and interviews to stand out from the other

candidates. Companies must compete with one another to hire the best students

from the best schools and compete to give the most attractive offer to the

candidates they want. The competition amongst universities is not as fierce

because most want as many firms as possible to come to their campus to recruit




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as it is a source of funds and also improves their image if a large percentage of

their students begin work immediately after graduation. With all three parties,

however, marketing plays a significant role in the process as they must give

themselves an edge over the competition to obtain what they want.

       An important part of the college recruitment process is the way the various

parties market themselves to their suitors. Foremost among these is how

corporations market themselves on college campuses. Firms must visit colleges

often and build a relationship with the students to have a better chance of hiring

them when the time comes. As Andrea Poe writes in HR Magazine: “If the first

time college seniors see your recruiters is at a job fair, you’re too late” (60). Firms

need to hold or sponsor campus events often to try and build a personal

relationship with potential candidates. If they are successful, they will have a

better chance of hiring the students they want. Consistency is important, as

students are more likely to respond if corporations send the same

representatives to campus for every event. Poe also recommends using alumni

and peer recruiters because students like to hear success stories from graduates

of their own university, and will relate better with their peers (62).

       The next group that must market themselves is the students seeking work.

They must present themselves in interviews in such a way that they stand out in

recruiter’s minds. Many students do not know how to conduct themselves during

interviews and lose out on jobs by behaving or dressing inappropriately. Students

who emphasize their strengths, are honest about their weaknesses, and who

show up for interviews well-groomed and on time will have a much better chance




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of landing their first job than a candidate who does not present himself or herself

well. If students hope to impress the interviewer and get the job they want, they

must do their homework and research how best to act towards a potential

employer.

       Universities must also market themselves well if they hope to attract

corporations to recruit on their campuses. Colleges must convince firms that their

students will make the best workers and will bring more to their employers than

students from other schools. To do this, they use their Corporate Services offices

to paint an appealing picture of the school for corporations. They provide firms

information on their students’ academic prowess and on other companies that

have taken an interest in their programs. The university’s role is an important one

because if they are successful, their students have a chance of being hired by

top companies, which would build a good reputation for the university and attract

more firms wishing to recruit.

       Increasingly, the Internet is being used as a marketing and recruitment

tool, particularly for companies and universities. Most universities run career

services or corporate relations websites to provide information to corporations

interested in partnering with the school. These websites can also provide a

database where firms can post jobs and view résumés posted by students.

These recruiting systems make it much easier for corporations to find potential

candidates and for students to find jobs they are interested in.

       “They offer more information about more jobs in more locations than is
       conceivable for paper equivalents. They are easier to search. They are
       potentially more up-to-date, because ads are posted immediately and can
       be edited frequently. They allow individuals to advertise their skills to
       employers as well as the reverse” (Autor 26).


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       Employers can also pre-screen candidates by searching for students with

certain credentials. The Internet has modernized the way corporations and job

candidates interact with one another; important information is more readily

available than ever before, which means that job candidates are better prepared

and employers can have a better idea of what their potential new hires are like.

       An information asymmetry occurs when one party in a transaction has

more or better information that gives them an advantage over the other party.

This is a regular occurrence in the labor market: “Workers searching for a job are

unlikely to be fully informed about job characteristics, and firms cannot

exhaustively screen and negotiate with all applicants” (Autor 25). Certainly, the

emergence of the Internet as a recruiting tool has helped provide more

information to employers and job candidates, but asymmetries still exist. Much of

the necessary information is readily available, but candidates must take

advantage of it if they hope to be successful in an interview. If a candidate is not

prepared, he or she will be at a disadvantage because their interviewer will

generally be much more experienced. Hiring managers have the advantage in an

interview because they know what to look for, what questions to ask, what it

takes to get hired, and what their company is like. If the candidate prepares for

the interview and researches the company and knows how to present him or

herself, the playing field will be much more level. All of the information they need

is out there on the Internet, but if students are hoping for a job and do not take

advantage of it, they will not find much success.




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       The college recruitment process has changed dramatically in recent years

as corporations look for new and more innovative ways to attract students. The

use of the Internet as a recruiting tool has greatly altered the relationship

between employers and potential candidates as more information has become

available and the two parties find it much easier to connect with one another. The

recent growth in the supply of graduates means that corporations have a much

better chance of finding the right workers, and with the number of students

graduating expected to continue to rise, their cost to hire could decrease.

Although many firms prefer to hire workers with a few years’ experience, the

demand for new, younger talent remains strong. The competition in this market is

very intense as corporations try to give themselves an edge to hire the best

students, and the students try to make themselves stand out in the recruiter’s

mind. If firms and graduates do not market themselves well, however, they will

not find much success. Students especially must be adequately prepared or else

they will find themselves at a great disadvantage during their interviews. The

Internet, however, has made it much easier for students and corporations alike to

prepare and have the best chance of getting exactly what they want. The process

of college recruitment requires a significant investment on the part of

corporations as they build a strong presence on campuses, but it is well worth it

in the long run for all parties involved.


                                      References

Autor, David H. “Wiring the Labor Market.” The Journal of Economic
       Perspectives. Vol. 15, No. 1 (Winter, 2001): 25-40




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Crosby, Olivia and Roger Moncarz. “The 2004-14 Job Outlook for College
      Graduates.” Occupational Outlook Quarterly. (Fall 2006): 42-57

Poe, Andrea C. “Face Value.” HRMagazine. Vol. 45, No. 5 (May 2000): 60

Smart, Bradford D. The Smart Interviewer. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
      1989




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SIP

  • 1. Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..2 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………3 Experiential Essay – University Relations at Freudenberg-NOK…………………..4 Connections Essay – The Labor Market and College Recruitment………………14 References……………………………………………………………………………..21 Appendix A……………………………………………………………………………..23 Appendix B……………………………………………………………………………..27 Appendix C……………………………………………………………………………..29 Appendix D……………………………………………………………………………..42 Appendix E……………………………………………………………………………..46
  • 2. Nork Abstract This document describes my experiences working in the Human Resources department at Freudenberg-NOK in Plymouth, Michigan. I spent the summer researching and documenting the company’s current college recruitment activity and made suggestions for improvements in the future. I created documents detailing how best to recruit at four different universities and presented my findings at the Human Resources Conference in September. In addition, this paper examines the labor market as it pertains to the college recruitment process. I discuss the supply and demand for college students, competition, and marketing. Finally, I describe how the Internet has changed and improved the college recruitment process by increasing the interaction between employers and potential job candidates. 2
  • 3. Nork Introduction Building a long-lasting relationship between a university and a corporation requires a lot of time and effort from all parties involved. Corporations must be consistent in establishing a presence on campus so that students come to recognize the company name and are well-informed as to their business practices. Starting early is important as keeping a student informed and interested throughout their college career will greatly increase their desire to work for a certain company. Students must also do their part and make sure they know what impresses recruiters so that they will have a better chance of landing their first job out of college. With the number of students graduating each year expected to grow in the future, the competition amongst students for entry-level positions is becoming fiercer. Although Freudenberg-NOK does not have many entry-level positions available, there is still an interest in recruiting recent college graduates. Many facilities use co-op students during the year to help in the engineering departments. However, the majority of them are not hired upon graduation. Freudenberg-NOK’s current recruiting activity is very inconsistent among the facilities; some HR managers recruit from three or more schools, while others do not recruit at all, but prefer to use recruiting firms to find the workers they need. Establishing a solid university recruiting program will allow Freudenberg-NOK to access all the talent and ideas that young people have to offer and will be extremely beneficial in the long run. 3
  • 4. Nork Experiential Essay – University Relations at Freudenberg-NOK I completed my summer internship in the Human Resources department of Freudenberg-NOK in Plymouth, Michigan. While not exactly a household name, Freudenberg-NOK (FNGP) is a German and Japanese joint-venture that is very well respected in the auto parts supplier industry. My job at FNGP was to research the company’s current college recruitment policy and make suggestions for the future to improve the process. I interviewed the Human Resource division leads to find out which schools they visit and what they look for when they recruit college students, then based my research on their responses. At the end of the summer, I presented my project at the Human Resources conference at the Plymouth facility in front of about thirty HR professionals. I left Freudenberg-NOK knowing that I had produced something that they will be able to use for many years and which will hopefully benefit the company in the long run. Freudenberg & Co. of Germany has been partners with the NOK Corporation of Japan for nearly 45 years, and in 1989, the two companies decided to combine strengths to form Freudenberg-NOK, now one of the world’s leaders in sealing products and vibration control technology. With nearly 40 locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, Freudenberg-NOK also owns the following brands: Corteco (aftermarket products), Dichtomatik (seals), Simrit (sealing products), Vibracoustic (vibration control), and Flexitech (brake hoses), among others. Freudenberg-NOK (FNGP) attributes much of its success to its Growtth® (Get Rid of Waste Through Team Harmony) program, which emphasizes teamwork and communications to increase effectiveness and 4
  • 5. Nork efficiency. As part of the Growtth® program, FNGP also practices Six Sigma, which allows for no more than 3.4 defects per million units produced, and many FNGP plants fall below that level. FNGP has also begun to diversify into several new markets, including oil and gas, aerospace, fluid power, medical products, and semiconductors, among others. The facility in Plymouth, Michigan, where I worked is Freudenberg-NOK’s headquarters, and houses administration, sales, customer support, engineering, and research and development departments. I worked for thirteen weeks in Human Resources under Sarah O’Hare, Vice President of Human Resources, studying FNGP’s college recruitment practices. With input from Sarah and Sherry Gray, who is the Director of Organizational Development, I researched the best schools in the country in engineering and business disciplines to determine which ones would best fit with the company’s needs. The main goals of my project were, firstly, to limit the number of schools Freudenberg-NOK recruits from in order to increase its recruiting power and effectiveness, and secondly, to broaden horizontal recruiting so that HR representatives would recruit for the company as a whole at job fairs, not just for their own facility. My other goals in completing the project were as follows: Document which schools FNGP currently recruits from, how many co-ops • and interns are used at each facility, and how many co-ops and new college graduates have been hired in recent years. Determine what Human Resource managers look for when they interview • recent graduates for entry-level positions. 5
  • 6. Nork Research the top schools in the nation, determine which schools to target, • find the best ways to increase name recognition for FNGP and develop a recruiting strategy for each campus. Reaching these goals led to suggestions for a more streamlined and simple companywide recruitment process, as well as an opportunity for improved horizontal recruiting. In order to determine the best schools in the country, I had to spend a significant amount of time on the Internet looking through university ranking systems at various institutions. In the end, I used five different sources in my research: U.S. News & World Report: This magazine publishes an annual, extensive • university ranking list in almost every academic discipline, known as America’s Best Colleges. The rankings consider peer and recruiter assessments, acceptance rate, faculty resources, and research activity. I used their rankings for both the engineering and business disciplines. The Wall Street Journal: This source was used to research the top • American business schools. This list is mostly based on recruiter assessment, and also ranks universities based on regional recruiting, minority recruiting, and the recruiting of women. BusinessWeek: BusinessWeek’s rankings of business schools are • determined through three data sources: a student survey, a recruiter survey, and an intellectual capital score, which is based on the number of articles published in scholarly journals by a school’s faculty members. 6
  • 7. Nork Academic Ranking of World Universities: This website ranks universities • worldwide, both generally and in the field of engineering. To obtain the rankings for North American schools, I simply removed the international schools from the list. This ranking system places heavy emphasis on Nobel Prize winners among alumni and staff, published authors in respected journals, highly cited researchers, and size of the institution. As a result of this, the ARWU places schools in a somewhat different order from the other rankings systems. Graduateshotline.com: This is most likely the least reputable of the • sources I used, but its rankings of engineering programs do not differ too much from the other lists. This website compiled its rankings using “various resources on the Internet”, student comments, and data on funding and research. These five sources helped me gain a better understanding of which schools would be the best for FNGP to target. However, I needed more information before I could make suggestions on this matter, so I turned to the HR division leads and managers to ask them about their current practices. The best way for me to find out what Freudenberg-NOK needs from its relationships with universities was to talk to the HR personnel at the other FNGP facilities and get their input. I also wanted to ask them about what they like to see in the college students they interview in terms of personal qualities and education. For the first part, I sent a mass e-mail on my first day asking HR managers and leads what schools they recruited from, how many students they 7
  • 8. Nork hired recently, and what majors those students had. Since many people did not respond to the e-mail, I decided to contact each of the division HR leads by telephone to ask some more in-depth questions about their usage of co-ops and interns and which schools they have co-op relationships with, if any. I put all of this information together in a comprehensive Excel spreadsheet with my research on universities (Appendix A). In order to find out what HR managers look for when they recruit, I developed a short questionnaire (Appendix B) asking such questions as: Do you prefer to fill entry-level positions with new college graduates or someone with 2-3 years experience? How much does a candidate’s alma mater affect your hiring decision? Do you generally recruit from larger schools or smaller ones? I also provided a short list of qualities and characteristics that are important to managers and asked for them to be ranked on a scale from 1-5. These were taken from “The Smart Interviewer” by Bradford D. Smart, who compiled a list of important attributes for hiring managers to use as a summary of a candidate. These rankings were put into another spreadsheet which I used to determine the average score for each characteristic and which ones were rated the highest overall. In the end, motivation, initiative, and integrity were rated the highest, while creativity, knowledge of the company, and first impression received the lowest rating. Based on the information I gained from the HR leads, I altered the focus of my research to schools that would be easier to establish a relationship with, but would also be beneficial to FNGP. At the time of the phone interviews, I had chosen three preliminary schools I wanted to investigate further: The University 8
  • 9. Nork of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and the University of California at Irvine. I had chosen these schools based on their geographic location (one east coast, one Midwest, and one west coast), their academic programs, and their current relationships with FNGP facilities. A number of facilities recruit at UMASS – Lowell, the Plymouth facility recruits from U-M, and the Santa Ana, CA facility visits UCI. However, since most of FNGP’s facilities are in the Midwest or New England areas, UCI would not have been a practical choice. When I presented these ideas to Sarah, she was very enthusiastic about U-M, since it is in the company headquarters’ back yard, but did not want to continue with UMASS – Lowell. Therefore, I went back to the rankings systems and conducted more research. Some of the most interesting information I obtained from my interviews with the HR leads had to do with the number of co-ops and recent graduates hired in the last five years. The ten leads have used 43 co-ops in the recent years, but have only hired six of those upon graduation, or only 14%. In addition, 25 new college graduates were hired in the last five years which, including the six co-ops, totals 31 recent graduates hired. However, only 16 of those are still with the company today, for a 52% retention rate. Despite these numbers, most of the HR leads told me they prefer to hire co-ops rather than someone fresh out of college because co-ops have already been trained and can start contributing immediately. Another telling statistic is that 12 FNGP facilities actively recruit from 20 different universities, which does not include multiple facilities visiting the same 9
  • 10. Nork school (for example, at least four reported recruiting at UMASS – Lowell, while three visited Kettering University). Also there are some facilities that do not recruit at all, while some visit four or more colleges. These inconsistencies are more harmful than helpful to the company since the facilities cannot focus their efforts on one or two campuses and are not recruiting for the company as a whole. After obtaining all the relevant information from the HR community and conducting my research, I presented my findings to Sarah and Sherry. Together, we decided on four schools to target: The University of Michigan, Purdue University, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These decisions were based on three criteria: Academic ranking: All four schools are ranked in the top 15 engineering • programs by each of my sources. MIT was the top ranked program by each source. All four also benefit from top business programs. Geographic location: Most FNGP facilities are located in the Midwest or • New England areas, so three of the four schools can cater to those locations. And the two Georgia locations benefit from a relationship with Georgia Tech. Current programs with FNGP facilities: FNGP already has a presence • established at three of the four choices (U-M, Purdue, and Georgia Tech). Sherry was of the opinion that MIT was a lofty goal for the company, but Sarah saw no reason why FNGP should not be successful there. I believe that it will 10
  • 11. Nork take the most work to establish a presence at MIT and to get the students to want to work for FNGP. In the end, we decided to focus our efforts on U-M, Purdue, and Georgia Tech and keep MIT in mind for the future when the recruiting program is more defined. Once we had decided on our target schools, I had to look at each one’s Career Services website to find their corporate relations policies. I researched the best ways to establish a presence and market the company’s brand on each campus, how to get interns and co-ops, when to visit the schools for job fairs, and any other opportunities that made the university unique. Once I obtained all of this information, I created a handbook that will be distributed to the HR community so they know all of their recruiting options (Appendix C). Some of the highlights of the handbook include: Georgia Tech: There are four different co-op programs for students: • Undergraduate co-op, Graduate co-op, Undergrad Professional Internship, and Work Abroad. Corporations can also become a Career Services Partner and sponsor the university in return for added recruiting benefits. MIT: MIT’s only co-op opportunity is called the Undergraduate • Professional Opportunities Program, which is for engineering sophomores. The Career Services website also sells advertising space to corporations to announce job openings or information sessions. Purdue: Purdue has recently launched the 21st Century Partnership • Program, where corporations make an annual donation in return for preferred placement at job fairs and other recruiting benefits. The “Talk 11
  • 12. Nork With a Pro” program is a database of professionals who are willing to talk to students about their careers and field of interest. University of Michigan: U-M is complicated since each of the colleges • (School of Engineering, Ross School of Business, etc.) has its own Career Services office, in addition to the one that serves the university as a whole. Each one also uses a separate online recruiting system. Corporations can sponsor student events through the College of Engineering and have the company name on all promotional materials. Although this information will have to be updated to show new job fair and information session dates, FNGP will be able to use it for a long time for their recruiting needs. After completing all of my research, I gave a presentation at the Human Resources Conference to tell the HR community about my suggestions (Appendix D). It was received with mixed results; several of the leads were unhappy that the schools they visit were not chosen, and some said they would not stop their current recruiting practices because they recruited locally which benefited their community. However, Sarah reinforced the benefits of recruiting from limited schools and although some aspects of my project may be modified, it will be enacted in the near future. The most positive effect my presentation had was that they all agreed to broaden their horizontal recruiting and interview students for each other. The other interesting job I completed during my time at Freudenberg-NOK was to look at the company’s voluntary employee turnover going back to 2004. 12
  • 13. Nork This provided interesting insight into my recruiting project because it taught me about FNGP’s employee retention and how the company could benefit from better university recruiting. In 2005, there was a mix-up in the headcount reporting; therefore both the headcount and turnover numbers were inaccurate. I went through the headcount reports and corrected the errors, then calculated the turnover. Normally, the turnover is calculated on a year to date, annualized basis. However, I found that calculating on a single month, non-year to date basis yielded more accurate numbers. There is very little pattern to be found in the results; about the only consistent data is the spike in August when many hourly employees return to school. The most common reason for people leaving the company the last four years was another job opportunity (30% reported this as their reason for leaving). It was very interesting for me to look at the turnover while researching university recruiting because it showed me that FNGP could definitely benefit from having solid relationships established to bring in new talent and hopefully lower the turnover rate. Freudenberg-NOK’s current recruiting activity is very inconsistent. Some facilities do not have many entry-level positions available, therefore a limited number of new college graduates have been hired in recent years. Although most HR managers say that it is easier to hire co-ops than new graduates because less training is required, very few co-ops have been hired in the last three years. Reducing the number of schools the company recruits from will make the process much easier and more effective. Forging relationships with a limited number of universities will be mutually beneficial for the company and the 13
  • 14. Nork schools themselves in the long run, as FNGP can focus its efforts and resources on getting exactly what it needs while supporting the university financially. A result of limiting the number of targeted schools will be better horizontal recruiting, wherein managers recruit for the company as a whole, rather than for individual facilities. I feel that this strategy will strengthen Freudenberg-NOK’s recruiting ability and will help build a higher retention rate in the future. Connections Essay – The Labor Market and College Recruitment During the course of my internship, I examined the college recruitment practices of Freudenberg-NOK and how best to recruit from certain schools. This paper will study the labor market in the college recruitment process and the economic factors that affect it, such as supply and demand, marketing, and competition. There are many factors which impact the number of students seeking work upon graduation and the demand for corporations looking to hire those students. Both employers and job candidates must market themselves to one another, a process in which the Internet has taken a prominent role. The labor market, as it pertains to college recruitment, is constantly changing as corporations compete to hire new, young talent and students compete for their first job in the real world. The level of demand for recent graduates is different for each company. Those companies that do not have many entry-level positions available will have relatively low interest in hiring students as they typically have little real work experience. Some companies have higher requirements for entry-level positions 14
  • 15. Nork than others; for example, some jobs require 2-3 years work experience in addition to a degree from a 4-year institution, while others will only require a degree. Many hiring mangers simply prefer to hire someone with a few years’ experience over a new college graduate because they require less training and can contribute right away. In addition, there are many costs to take into account when recruiting college students that could affect the level of demand. For example, a firm has to consider the costs of registering for a job fair, reserving a space for an information session, sponsoring the university financially, possible relocation costs for new hires, and purchasing promotional materials and advertising space. Some firms may find it simpler and less expensive to use a recruiter to find potential candidates, which would lessen the demand for graduates. However, larger firms that have the resources to actively recruit and hire recent graduates will have a higher demand. If the overall demand for new graduates increases, then the cost of hiring will increase as well, as firms compete to hire the best students. The demand for students at certain universities is also higher than at others because of their academic reputation. For example, demand for students from Harvard or Yale is higher than for those from Wayne State University because many firms believe students at more prestigious schools will perform better on the job. Of course, much of this depends on the pool of candidates available, which has been growing rapidly in recent years. The number of graduates annually entering the workforce has increased steadily as more options are available for young people who are deciding on a 15
  • 16. Nork school, such as two year programs or community colleges. In addition, more young people are realizing the growing benefits of having a college degree. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2004 and 2014, almost 14 million jobs are projected to be filled by workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher and who are starting a job for the first time (Crosby and Moncarz 43). The incentive to obtain a college degree is rising, as those with degrees earn significantly more than those with only a high school diploma, as illustrated by Chart 1 (Appendix E, Crosby and Moncarz 44). This graph clearly shows that workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher earn a substantial amount more than those who do not attend or complete college. Also, workers who attend college are less likely to be unemployed, and therefore will make more money in the long run than those who do not complete their education. The 2005 unemployment rate for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher was only 2%, half the rate for those with only a high school diploma (4%), and significantly less than the 7% for those who dropped out of school (Crosby and Moncarz 45). Obviously, there is great incentive to complete college and obtain a degree. As more people become aware of the advantages of having a college degree, more and more will attend college, thereby increasing the number of graduates entering the workforce. If this happens, the cost of hiring a student will decrease, and corporations will have fewer problems finding good employees that suit their needs. In a perfectly competitive market, neither the consumer nor the producer has the power to influence market price, which produces a completely efficient outcome. The labor market as it pertains to college recruitment, however, is not a 16
  • 17. Nork perfectly competitive market. The “goods” in this market, or the students who are seeking work, are not perfect substitutes for one another. Each candidate has his or her own strengths and weaknesses and can bring something unique to their future employer. By the same token, firms are not perfect substitutes either. Working for Ford is a completely different experience than working for Google, for example. For this reason, corporations will hire those candidates they feel will benefit their company the best, while graduates will accept the offer from the company they feel is the best fit for them. Also, prices in this situation are not set by the market, as they are in a perfectly competitive market. Firms can offer whatever salary they wish to the candidates they want to hire. If other companies want to hire the same students, they must make a better offer than their competitors. However, there is no perfect or complete information in this situation, and firms do not know what salaries graduates are being offered by other firms. All of these factors violate the definition of a perfectly competitive market, and the competition in this situation therefore becomes extremely steep. There are three groups in competition in the college recruitment process: students looking for jobs, firms hoping to hire those students, and universities trying to bring corporations in to recruit. Students must present themselves well to recruiters in information sessions and interviews to stand out from the other candidates. Companies must compete with one another to hire the best students from the best schools and compete to give the most attractive offer to the candidates they want. The competition amongst universities is not as fierce because most want as many firms as possible to come to their campus to recruit 17
  • 18. Nork as it is a source of funds and also improves their image if a large percentage of their students begin work immediately after graduation. With all three parties, however, marketing plays a significant role in the process as they must give themselves an edge over the competition to obtain what they want. An important part of the college recruitment process is the way the various parties market themselves to their suitors. Foremost among these is how corporations market themselves on college campuses. Firms must visit colleges often and build a relationship with the students to have a better chance of hiring them when the time comes. As Andrea Poe writes in HR Magazine: “If the first time college seniors see your recruiters is at a job fair, you’re too late” (60). Firms need to hold or sponsor campus events often to try and build a personal relationship with potential candidates. If they are successful, they will have a better chance of hiring the students they want. Consistency is important, as students are more likely to respond if corporations send the same representatives to campus for every event. Poe also recommends using alumni and peer recruiters because students like to hear success stories from graduates of their own university, and will relate better with their peers (62). The next group that must market themselves is the students seeking work. They must present themselves in interviews in such a way that they stand out in recruiter’s minds. Many students do not know how to conduct themselves during interviews and lose out on jobs by behaving or dressing inappropriately. Students who emphasize their strengths, are honest about their weaknesses, and who show up for interviews well-groomed and on time will have a much better chance 18
  • 19. Nork of landing their first job than a candidate who does not present himself or herself well. If students hope to impress the interviewer and get the job they want, they must do their homework and research how best to act towards a potential employer. Universities must also market themselves well if they hope to attract corporations to recruit on their campuses. Colleges must convince firms that their students will make the best workers and will bring more to their employers than students from other schools. To do this, they use their Corporate Services offices to paint an appealing picture of the school for corporations. They provide firms information on their students’ academic prowess and on other companies that have taken an interest in their programs. The university’s role is an important one because if they are successful, their students have a chance of being hired by top companies, which would build a good reputation for the university and attract more firms wishing to recruit. Increasingly, the Internet is being used as a marketing and recruitment tool, particularly for companies and universities. Most universities run career services or corporate relations websites to provide information to corporations interested in partnering with the school. These websites can also provide a database where firms can post jobs and view résumés posted by students. These recruiting systems make it much easier for corporations to find potential candidates and for students to find jobs they are interested in. “They offer more information about more jobs in more locations than is conceivable for paper equivalents. They are easier to search. They are potentially more up-to-date, because ads are posted immediately and can be edited frequently. They allow individuals to advertise their skills to employers as well as the reverse” (Autor 26). 19
  • 20. Nork Employers can also pre-screen candidates by searching for students with certain credentials. The Internet has modernized the way corporations and job candidates interact with one another; important information is more readily available than ever before, which means that job candidates are better prepared and employers can have a better idea of what their potential new hires are like. An information asymmetry occurs when one party in a transaction has more or better information that gives them an advantage over the other party. This is a regular occurrence in the labor market: “Workers searching for a job are unlikely to be fully informed about job characteristics, and firms cannot exhaustively screen and negotiate with all applicants” (Autor 25). Certainly, the emergence of the Internet as a recruiting tool has helped provide more information to employers and job candidates, but asymmetries still exist. Much of the necessary information is readily available, but candidates must take advantage of it if they hope to be successful in an interview. If a candidate is not prepared, he or she will be at a disadvantage because their interviewer will generally be much more experienced. Hiring managers have the advantage in an interview because they know what to look for, what questions to ask, what it takes to get hired, and what their company is like. If the candidate prepares for the interview and researches the company and knows how to present him or herself, the playing field will be much more level. All of the information they need is out there on the Internet, but if students are hoping for a job and do not take advantage of it, they will not find much success. 20
  • 21. Nork The college recruitment process has changed dramatically in recent years as corporations look for new and more innovative ways to attract students. The use of the Internet as a recruiting tool has greatly altered the relationship between employers and potential candidates as more information has become available and the two parties find it much easier to connect with one another. The recent growth in the supply of graduates means that corporations have a much better chance of finding the right workers, and with the number of students graduating expected to continue to rise, their cost to hire could decrease. Although many firms prefer to hire workers with a few years’ experience, the demand for new, younger talent remains strong. The competition in this market is very intense as corporations try to give themselves an edge to hire the best students, and the students try to make themselves stand out in the recruiter’s mind. If firms and graduates do not market themselves well, however, they will not find much success. Students especially must be adequately prepared or else they will find themselves at a great disadvantage during their interviews. The Internet, however, has made it much easier for students and corporations alike to prepare and have the best chance of getting exactly what they want. The process of college recruitment requires a significant investment on the part of corporations as they build a strong presence on campuses, but it is well worth it in the long run for all parties involved. References Autor, David H. “Wiring the Labor Market.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives. Vol. 15, No. 1 (Winter, 2001): 25-40 21
  • 22. Nork Crosby, Olivia and Roger Moncarz. “The 2004-14 Job Outlook for College Graduates.” Occupational Outlook Quarterly. (Fall 2006): 42-57 Poe, Andrea C. “Face Value.” HRMagazine. Vol. 45, No. 5 (May 2000): 60 Smart, Bradford D. The Smart Interviewer. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1989 22