As the name suggests, graduate recruiters are people hired by employers to find suitable graduates for open vacancies. They could either be in-house personnel or from an external consultancy firm.
While graduate recruiting could almost be considered a specialized field, not all companies would have such target specific people in their HR team and there has been a growing market for graduate recruitment agencies to aid companies in their recruitment drives.
A good graduate recruitment agency will not only find ways to source prospective candidates, but will also create and manage recruitment campaigns. They are usually found scouring the campuses of schools, colleges and universities to find those who are either recently graduated or on their way to graduation who meet the requirements as requested by the employer.
Besides identifying suitable candidates, graduate recruitment agencies will also be responsible for recognizing a client’s specific needs, interviewing the graduates, organizing their paperwork and will then also take part in overseeing the selection process.
Once the graduate recruitment agency has been instructed by the client on what their specific needs are the graduate or campus recruiter will then decide which universities and courses to target their recruitment drives on. These graduate recruiters will usually have built up good relationships with the various campuses which will allow them to move amongst the students and relevant educators.
Not all graduate recruitment agencies are tasked by companies to source suitable graduates. Some may even work on-campus and provide services to graduates who are looking for recruitment opportunities. Graduate recruiters are also very involved in job fairs on campuses and make for excellent advisors when it comes to career opportunities.
In the highly competitive employment market, being assisted by a graduate recruitment agency can be an asset as they would have highly specific skills knowledge and should also be aware of any new developments in the graduate recruitment trends.