Recruiters Are Slugging It Out

Which companies made a splash with innovative recruiting activities this year?
Every year, there are a few companies that do breakthrough marketing programs or events that generate buzz on campus. This fall, Boston Consulting Group gave branded iPods to all of their summer interns. Booz Allen Hamilton took all of their interns to the Booz Allen Classic golf tournament.

I also heard that Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF ) sent handwritten notes and T-shirts to a number of candidates who they wanted to interview because of what they've seen on their resumes. That's not necessarily a very costly activity, but it does demonstrate that the company gave attention to one individual and that can be persuasive. I've even heard of some companies taking students snowmobiling.

Is there more and more pressure for companies to send their top people to campus?
It really varies by company. At General Electric (GE ), for example, they have a whole selection process for the recruiting team. There, recruiting is seen as a desirable position, and if someone gets bad reviews, he or she won't get asked back. Other companies have trouble getting anyone to go.

Are there any hot places to work right now?
Invariably, the industry that's currently considered the hottest tends to fall off the table the following year. Just because an industry is hot doesn't mean it has staying power.

We have seen a ramping up of recruiting activities from some of the more established Internet and tech companies, like eBay (EBAY ), Amazon.com (AMZN ), and Google (GOOG ) (see BW Online, 7/15/05, "Building the Bid-ness at eBay").

Any predictions?
Looking forward, I really think that we're going to see a fairly strong market for candidates. We're already seeing some pressure on companies to increase compensation levels. I heard that one of the investment banks just raised its starting offers for undergraduates.

Because of a greater demand for candidates, corporate yields are going to go down. We'll see many companies somewhat disappointed in the number of people that they're able to hire.

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