
Your child or grandchild is just about to graduate from school and hit the workforce. It’s a great time for them, as companies are recruiting hard to fill space in a labor pool that has been decimated by COVID lockdowns. Lindsay Ellis reports in the Wall Street Journal:
Young professionals coming out of college this spring are in high demand. Employers plan to hire at least 30% more new graduates this year than they did last year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. In some fields, including technology, finance and consulting, starting salaries are even in the six figures. And while many in Gen Z say they wish to work remotely at least part of the time, some are eager to partake of office life.
Fifty-three Baylor University students attended an invitation-only speed-networking event with employees of Academy Sports + Outdoors in the presidential suite of the campus’s football stadium in late March. The students were chosen because of their grades, activities, majors and desired careers paths. They ate hors d’oeuvres and learned about Academy while taking in a sweeping view of the gridiron through floor-to-ceiling windows.
One student, senior Madison Manherz, said she took the event more seriously because of its location and exclusivity. She prepared by tailoring her elevator pitch to the company. Her father brought to campus a dress and heels from her family’s home in The Woodlands, about 150 miles away from the campus in Waco, Texas.
Students across majors—considering jobs in finance, marketing and the supply chain—attended the event. Dubbed “Academy Night,” the Baylor event is one of several that the company is hosting at Texas universities as an official re-entry to in-person recruiting, said Bill Ennis, Academy’s senior vice president and chief human-resources officer.
Booths at a career fair are “kind of impersonal” compared with a private event in the presidential suite of a stadium, Mr. Ennis added. Academy expects five to seven Baylor students to accept offers the company made after the event and plans to hire 35 to 40 students from Academy nights across the state.
“This environment, this wow factor, probably drew out a few more kids,” he said.
This semester, several companies are operating from a similar playbook, giving students standout experiences to make a stronger hiring pitch. Companies and colleges said more of this semester’s recruiting, including at career fairs, is in person than at any time since the pandemic began.
Tesla Inc. parked vehicles near Baylor’s library for several hours in advance of an information session on campus in February. University of Southern California’s undergraduate business school held an in-person, Boeing-sponsored case competition for students during the current spring semester. Executives and Boeing alumni helped mentor the students and judged the presentations. Boeing paid scholarship money to the winners.
Arrive Logistics, an Austin, Texas-based freight-transportation company, sent the company’s two co-founders to the Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for a lecture in an executive speaker series, and the next day one held coffee chats with juniors and seniors, said Nicole Furnia, director of university relations for Arrive Logistics. The company hires students for several roles, including in business development.
“Gone are the days of the regular info sessions,” said Ms. Furnia. Many students haven’t experienced a recruiting cycle on campus and are learning how to network and interview in person, she added.
At the end of March, St. Cloud Technical and Community College, in Minnesota, held its first in-person job fair since 2019, and the school estimated that more than 540 students and 150 employers attended. On April 1, the University of Houston’s College of Education hosted an in-person teacher job fair, its first in more than two years, bringing in representatives from 45 Texas school districts. At least six students got job offers on the spot, the education college said.
Action Line: Don’t let your graduate enter the workforce without having the talk. You know, the retirement savings talk. It’s all fun and games to get that first paycheck, but try to make sure they put some aside for the future. You can make the talk easier by giving them a copy of my Special Report: How To Invest After Graduating College.