The document outlines 9 sensational things companies should do to attract new talent from universities before competitors. These include finding key lecturers to embed your company in the curriculum, being constantly present on campus, starting relationships with first-year students, offering part-time jobs and internships, sponsoring final-year students, and running long-term sponsorship deals to build loyalty. The key message is that companies cannot wait passively for graduates, but must proactively engage with students from the start of their studies.

1. 9 Sensational Things You Should
Do To Get The New Talent
Before Everyone Else
David Edmundson-Bird
Principal Lecturer in Digital Marketing
Course Director for MMC MSc Digital Marketing
Associate Director for Digital Innovation
Manchester Metropolitan University

2. 1. Find your key
lecturer
• They are awash with offers to ‘tell
students about our experiences in the
industry’
• Give them a key lecture or workshop into a
specific practitioner skill
• Become embedded (and therefore
permanent) in the curriculum
• Get involved in curriculum design
• Find ways to help them – ask them what
they need
• Find the right lecturer, find the course
leader, don’t find the manager or
researcher
• You will be first on their list when
students ask

3. 2. Be constantly on
campus
• Make sure you find a way to be
involved in Freshers/ Enrolement/
Orientation Week
• Sponsor a new joiners/returners social
event and be at it with your brightest
and freshest staff
• Sponsor a student society related to
your sector
• And be actively involved in its running
• Teach the members how to network
• Students will remember you if you
are actively involved from the outset
in their education

4. 3. Start early
• Don’t wait till the final year – start
on the first years
• Offer part-time work (see point 4)
or summer work
• Become a coach or a mentor
• Run a legal, in-curriculum
internship
• Students will remember you if you
are actively involved from the
outset in their education

5. 4. Make friends
• Encourage students to become your
‘brand ambassadors’ on campus
• Consider this as a role with a pay
cheque - set performance criteria
• Set up networking events for
students to attend
• Show them how to do it - have a few
quid for a few drinks
• Use your network of ambassadors to
work out who the talent is
• Students will remember you if you
are actively involved from the outset
in their education

6. 5. Offer a part-time
job
• Offering an unpaid internship gets
you
• Only candidates who don’t have to
work part-time
• Only candidates who don’t value
themselves
• A reputation for thinking you’re too
good to pay staff
• A paid part-time job gets a student
the experience you demand in the
industry they are interested in
• Students will remember you if you
are actively involved in helping them
out at their time of need

7. 6. Offer a sandwich
year placement
• Giving a student a 9 – 12 month
full-time paid placement gives
them exposure and experience to
your organization AND the role
• They’ll be a brand ambassador in
their final year
• They will recruit the next
placement student for you
• Chances are – they will return
after graduation into a role above
the entry-level

8. 7. Sponsor a final year
student
• Final year is tough – students who
have to work still dial their hours
down and the financial pressure is
huge
• Help reduce the pressure
• Provide a financial incentive to study
hard rather than work too many part-
time hours
• Combine this with a project for
dissertation
• You might get something solved as
well as a potentially great employee

9. 8. Run a sponsorship
deal
• Look at sponsoring students over the
period of their studies
• Run a competition at the end of the
first year
• Look for great applicants
• Combine real drive with real need
• Combine a sponsorship deal with
part-time work and sandwich year
placement
• Build an individual to your spec
• Create loyalty
• You might get a graduate who is way,
way beyond the entry-level junior

10. 9. Don’t leave it too
late
• If you ring after Easter you’ll miss the
boat
• Don’t wait until you think you have a
vacancy
• Don’t say “Send me your very best
graduates.” They only go to the very
best companies – is that you?
• You are good enough for them and
they are good enough for you
• It’s no longer enough to wait for them
to arrive – you have to get out and
attract them

11. One piece of advice
• Stop calling them ’Millenials’ like
they are some kind of alien species
Thanks for listening
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“Edmundson-Bird”
or
“GrooveGenerator”
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