18/03/2015
placement aspirants things to do well in career opportunies :
10 TIPS TO IMPROVE CAMPUS
PLACEMENT
Posted On July 29, 2013 By Admin
Getting campus interviews for your students
is one of the most important aspects that is
expected of the colleges in India. Students
and parents, more so during recession, look
for campus placement records as one of the
important parameter in selecting a college.
It is easy when you have a reputation. It is
like Sachin Tendulkar getting selected getting
that automatic selection even when he is not
in his prime, but to be there he had to
perform at the highest level in every match
he played for about 15 to 20 years. So how do
a college which is either relatively new or
looking to build their campus placement
records. Here are the top 10 tips that we have
put together based on our experience of more
than 15 years in campus placement and based
on the input from various Placement Officers
who have been very successful and from very
senior HRs. Sometimes even the God of
Cricket needs to go back to his basics. So
these tips could also be useful for colleges
with great reputation and do campus
placement day in and day out.
Tip 1 : Placement Officer or Placement Cell
If your college doesn’t have a Placement
Officer or a Placement Cell, then it is the first
and foremost point to look at. Trying to get
campus placement to a college is similar to a
recruitment agency trying to run their
business without a recruiter. Your Placement
Cell is the must and if you are serious about
campus placement, they are the most
important aspect to make it successful.
Resources in placement cell should be
dedicated and well recognized.
Tip 2 : Improve Your College Profile
This is a no brainer, so why did we call it out?
Well! Pretty much every one can say you need
to improve your college profile, but the
conundrum is how do you? When it comes to
improving your college profile, you should
look at every aspect of the things related to
college. Here are some of the things you
should consider:
Design a professional looking website
developed by professionals
Your brochure design should look professional
and content should be concise and to the
Market your Previous Placement Records. If
there are none, then project some of the
alumni who are in prominent positions or
even staffs who are from industry back
ground. You can also approach portal such as
ours, www.campusinteraction.com to get help
to get you started with campus recruitment
Academic Records: Student and Staff
academic records are an important aspect
which companies look for.
Market your professors and lecturers profile
who have excellent academic and/or industry
back ground
Include awards that your college has received
If your college infrastructure is something to
be proud of then include it on the website
and your marketing brochure
Tip 3 : Training
This is one of the most important aspects to
improve your placement records. Some
colleges start their training in the final year,
but in our experience colleges that start from
first year onwards. Your training should focus
on subjects that are related to industry
experience. Companies no longer just look for
academic excellence, aptitude and group
discussion. Yes, they are the corner stone of
an interview but more and more companies
are looking at how well your students are
prepared to work in an industry. Your
training should be focused on real world
problem and what the industry currently
requires.
For an example, for computer science students
the training should focus on programming
languages such as Java, .Net the two
prominent programming languages. Mobile
technologies Android and Objective-C, which
is used to develop iPhone apps, are also in
great demand. Having your students trained
on this will differentiate your college from
others and will certainly give you an edge.
Tip 4 : Networking is Everything
NETWORKING is the single most powerful
marketing tactic to accelerate and sustain
success for any individual or organization!
– Adam Small
Through Networking you build trust. If you
were a Company HR, wouldn’t you prefer to
look at a college referred by someone you
know and trust? Networking is more so
important if you are a small college with tight
budgets as you are dependent upon
networking and referrals rather than on costly
employment agencies and classified ads. Even
if you have a budget to spend on ads, there is
nothing better than having a strong network
and trusted allies.
Begin by creating a “My contact worksheet”
containing all your contacts including your
friends, classmates, alumni, faculties and
their contacts, relatives, neighbours, people
you met at meetings and social gatherings and
people who know other people through their
work. Maintain this list and review it
regularly. You can also portal such as ours, to
reach plethora of Company HRs and to
Network with them. We reach close to 400
company HRs a day (that is right per day) and
you can leverage those contacts
In this day and age, it would be naïve to
social media. Use LinkedIn, which I believe is
an excellent networking tool to keep
professional touch, Facebook, Twitter and
Pinterest. It is important you don’t spam
Company HRs using these tools but do
something that they find it useful. Right a
blog that is of interest to them. It will not only
raise your profile but they are more likely to
read your messages as they know it is not a
marketing message or a spam
Tip 5 : Professionalism
Showing professionalism in every step of the
way from the first email you send to a
Company HR to the way you and your college
conduct themselves when a company HR visit
your campus, makes a huge and lasting
impression. Most, if not all, Company HRs rate
this tip as quite high in their list. It is also
worth defining a “Code of conduct” for your
college so everyone in your college knows
what to follow.
Tip 6 : Hospitality
Be a “King of Good Times” when a Company
HR visits your college, well except the alcohol!
Like a good host, your hospitality has to excel
and the Company HRs should remember their
trip. You have done all the hard work to get
them through your door and most importantly
you need to make sure they visit your college
every time. Hospitality is one of the factor
that keeps a Company HR remember about
your college. It is also great way to network
and build your professional relationship
Tip 7 : Placing Right Candidates
When a Company visits for placement, there
may be a tendency to place as many students
as they can, it is extremely important you
place candidates who are ready and eligible
for that role. If you think if a student is not
ready, though has the qualification, you are
better off in not sending that student for the
interview. When companies visit one of the
aspect they see and one of the aspect their
company governance board and senior
executive management see is “Attended vs
recruited” numbers. This gives them an
indication of which colleges have high quality
students. If the colleges expect large numbers,
it is even worth getting eligible students from
nearby colleges rather than placing students
who you know won’t get through.
You can use portal like
www.campusinteraction.com to short list the
candidates. You can use online test to assess
how well a student does and infact use video
profile to evaluate ones communication skill
Tip 8 : Company-College Collaboration
Platforms
Portals such as ours,
www.campusinteraction.com , helps you to
reach out to company HRs. In our portal, we
provide a complete life cycle of campus
recruitment from online training to put your
college in touch with the college. Here are
some of the benefits of using portal such as
ours:
Training via online tests including company
question papers
Excellent reporting module to monitor your
student progress
Video profile to assess communication skill
Career portal having several article on campus
interview tips written by industry experts
Upload your own online test (or use ours)
questions and conduct mock tests
Words a day; helping your students to
improve vocabulary
Video training
We reach close to 400 companies a day so
there is a good chance you will get a
placement through us. You can visit
www.campusinteraction.com/ci/campusjobs/
for current jobs
Tip 9 : Employability
According to Nasscom only 25% of Indian
Engineering Students are readily employable.
Unfortunate, but true. According to Albert
Einstein “In the middle of every difficulty lies
an opportunity” (By the way for great quotes
check quotedb ).
If your students are more employable,
Congrats! You are already in the top 25%.
That is for every 4 students employed, one of
your student will be part of it. It is great
position to be in, but how do you get there.
The answer is persistence. Many colleges start
training their students in final year focusing
only on Aptitude, Logical, Group Discussion,
Presentation and Face to Face. Yes, these are
must, but most colleges do these. Also
companies have started to look for more and
more employability skills along with
traditional skillsets like logical and
communication.
Here are some of the examples what
companies may be looking for?
Does your students know how to write a
program in Java or .Net or Android or
Objective-C?
A manufacturing company may look for
candidates, who knows how to operate and
understand machineries?
Students who apply for sales and marketing
know what the latest marketing trends are?
Can they use social media effectively to sell?
Can they give impressive presentations?
These skills can’t be built in few months. So
your placement activities should be focused
from year 1 and it has to be continuous and
should be measured periodically. Make sure
you keep some KPIs (Key Performance
Indicators) and measure student’s progress
against this.
Tip 10 : Picking The Right Campus Job
Last but not the least! Picking the right kind
of Campus Job ensures you maintain your
reputation in the market. Though it will be
very difficult to say no to campus placement,
if you believe your students are not suitable
for a particular job then you are prudent to
say no. Companies would greatly respect if
you are upfront and most likely to visit you
for a job that suits your student. The last
thing you want is to agree for every campus
jobs and couldn’t get even one student placed.
Companies will most certainly avoid any
contacts with you as it wastes their time and
spoils a HRs reputation and may even affects
his job to an extent.