Recruiting at George Washington University

This past Thursday I had the privilege of attending the George Washing University career fair with two people from my team. The normal protocol is for recruiting to attend job fairs, but from my experience it’s better for the team to attend. There are pros and cons with regard to pulling people out of their day jobs to attend career fairs, but in my opinion the pros outweigh the cons.

Finding talent, let alone great talent to hire is tough. Unemployment is low and there are plenty of companies looking to hire. In the DC area there are many consulting firms looking to hire graduates. I believe we were the only media company recruiting at the event and some students were excited to speak to us, to AOL.

Some told us they were specifically there because of AOL.

Watching my team in action, answering questions and showing the passion they had about their positions at AOL, was priceless. When someone looks at a job opening online we probably have one shot at capturing their attention. Having the actual people who hold the jobs we are recruiting for allows for the students to actually ask questions and get actual answers.

While none of us were GW graduates, I know I have some on my team and next time I hope they can attend. Graduates at these events bring a legitimacy that can’t be matched. You were in their shoes at some point in the past.

I’m looking forward see if my team hires some of the people we spoke with.