As a guest speaker for a college undergrad senior class I had two interesting take-aways on the topic of recruiting for this lively, engaged, question-asking, very fun class!

• Take-away #1: “Experiential Learning” is the way to go! I was hoping to help the class better understand the intricacies and nuances of the recruiting process. This was a night class, so I wasn’t sure what kind of attention span to expect!  First of all, like most people, students thought recruiting was merely a name-gathering exercise. Since it is so much more involved than that, I was challenged to convey this huge topic in meaningful, non-boring, impactful way in the time allotted! I used my favorite “recruitment process” analogy as a basis for the exercise…DATING.  Since these young adults are in the throes of dating, it seemed like a fairly decent angle. I had the students volunteer for various roles in our little analogy drama (the lone guy played the role of “the guy”). We also had a Scribe, “the female”, and “the friend”. I had the students physically act out the dating process, stopping at each point to identify the interaction (i.e. finding out if the guy is right for your friend, the blind date, the engagement, etc.). Then we correlated the recruitment process to the dating process. They had to think and they had to participate! I am very hopeful and confident they learned something. They got it! …and so did I!! I saw their reactions to a non-lecture-information-dumping approach – it was great.  I saw the wheels turning (they responded and interacted!). Once again, this approach to learning has proved to be the way to go.  They learned, I learned.
• Take-away #2: The Resume. I made the class an offer. After I passed out my card, I told them if they contacted me/sent me their resumes, I would call them with a verbal opinion/my perspective. A couple of students took me up on my offer. Their resumes were surprisingly good, but as a whole, people miss the point of a resume. What was missing in their resumes was the same thing I see missing in most resumes. It is not a listing of information – well, let me re-phrase, it is not just a listing of information. A resume needs speak up for who you are when you’re not there to speak for yourself. It represents “you”. So many resumes are VANILLA (especially college grads who have minimal experience). Most candidates think the employer is looking for a detailed account of their “responsibilities”. Not true. The employer is looking for a detailed account of their “accomplishments”. Seriously, if another person had the same job history as you, and it was about listing responsibilities, technically, the resumes would look the same, right? The job of your resume is to highlight YOU…what YOU are capable of, what YOU have done/accomplished…not just what you were hired to do.

It was great to combine areas of my expertise & passion into this single event: connecting with the class; delivering a message in a way so they “got it”; educating/clarifying the topic of recruiting; and helping these soon-to-be-grads better represent themselves on paper. I’m anxiously awaiting the test scores. 🙂