Improve the Student Job Candidate Experience With These 8 Ideas

By Victoria Robertson on June 19, 2017

As a recruiter, the most important aspect of your job is the candidate experience. Nothing else matters if your candidate doesn’t feel valued or taken care of. In fact, the best recruiters care more about their candidates than they do themselves.

Of course, that begs the question, how do we, as recruiters, improve the candidate job experience? How can we ensure that candidates feel valued by their recruiters? How can we ensure they have the best experience possible?

Well, there are actually quite a few steps that you can be doing on your end to improve this experience for your candidates. So, to help you out, here are eight tips to help you improve the student job candidate experience.

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1. Keep it conversational but professional

Recruiter/candidate relationships should be professional, but they don’t have to be so clinical that you can’t speak about anything aside from work. In fact, most candidates find that they are more likely to work with recruiters that show interest in them on a personal level. For instance, a recruiter that asks questions about your dog is going to be more memorable than one who only calls when they need something.

Again, professionalism is very important, but creating that personal relationship is the key to building a stronger relationship with your candidates.

2. Offer advice

You’re their recruiter, so your first job should be to look out for their best interests. Along this line of thinking, you should be offering them advice wherever you’re qualified to give it. If a candidate needs interview advice, ensure that you’re providing all of that to the candidate prior to their interview to ensure they’ll do well. They’ll appreciate you more for it and it’ll show that you truly care about their career search.

3. Keep in touch

As stated before, you shouldn’t be reaching out to candidates just because you need something. You should definitely be keeping in touch with them, even when you don’t have any opportunities for them. This shows that you’re still keeping them in mind and that you care enough to continue to build the relationship, even when it isn’t necessarily benefiting you.

4. Appreciate their time

You know that time is valuable, so it stands to reason that your candidates’ time is valuable as well. For that reason, you should appreciate the time that your candidates give you, and remember that they are people too. While it’s important to respond quickly to one another, you should also appreciate the fact that the candidate has a life outside of their job search. So establish an understanding that you need quick responses, but also develop an understanding of each other’s personal schedules.

5. Understand their needs

As a recruiter, your needs are not the most important; your candidate’s needs are. For that reason alone, the emphasis should be placed on what they need and how you can help them to achieve it. In other words, put your candidates first, always. That’s how you’ll be the most successful and create the best experience for them.

6. Be prompt

Don’t delay in your responses. If you place urgency on your candidate, you should reciprocate that same urgency in your own responses. Both of your time is valuable, and that’s how the relationship should be treated. The more equal the two of you are, the better off you both are.

7. Be honest

I know this is a tough one, as recruiters tend to shy away from sharing certain feedback, but the more honest you are with your candidate, the better your relationship will be. So when you have feedback, share it with your candidate, good or bad, so that they can improve in the future. That way, they’ll be able to turn today’s rejections into future offers.

8. Network

Finally, you and your candidate should be networking with one another. This relationship can be beneficial for you both in your careers, so utilize one another as resources in seeking opportunities.

Of course, there are countless additional ways in which you can improve the candidate experience. However, this is a great starting point from which you can build more personal relationships between yourself and your candidates to ensure a very strong experience on their end and lasting relationships well into the future.

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