ACADEMICS

College fairs key to short-, long-term recruiting

Considering skipping the job fair circuit this year due to a lack of staff openings?

Think again, says Judith Clare.

Clare is director of the Amica Center for Career Education at Bryant University. She says accounting firms who want to be competitive for top talent must be aggressive regardless of short-term hiring needs.

“It’s not unusual for employers who have already met their hiring needs not to attend (job fairs). My advice would be to go,” she said. “Job fairs are not just about interviewing for current job openings. It helps the branding of your firm. It’s very difficult for a company to draw talent if it is not developing a name or brand on campus.”

A strategic recruiting plan is vital to medium-sized, regional firms that hope to compete with the aggressive recruiting methods, salaries and benefits of The Big Four.

Clare said job fairs and other outreach programs are affordable ways for medium-sized firms to capture the attention of talent who might not be attracted to national firms.

She said fairs are an opportunity for firms to discuss their corporate cultures that set them apart from mega-firms. “I also think it’s an opportunity for students to hear who your clients are. Are they construction companies, the hospitality industry, automobile dealers, banks?”

James D. Wilkinson, CPA, a shareholder at Braver PC, said his company uses job fairs to stress the firm’s ability to provide valuable experience and training, as well as “exposure to multiple environments, from small business, to tax, to audit.”

Wilkinson says the fairs and other efforts are needed to fill the six to 10 entry-level positions that typically exist at the 150-staff firm each year.

Because Braver has offices in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Wilkinson said the firm has the advantage of attracting jobseekers looking to work in either a large metro market or Rhode Island.

Making face-to-face connections is also critical to recruitment strategies for students not in their senior year.

Michael DeCataldo, CPA, managing partner with Sansiveri, Kimball & Co., LLP, said attending college events plays an important role in attracting quality interns in their junior year. He said that the firm tries to hire one or two former interns each year depending on the current needs of the firm.

DeCataldo says the student’s experience at the firm not only gives the company insights into the student, but plays a vital role in the intern’s decision to accept a job offer when he or she graduates from college.

“We try to make the internships more than the data processing of tax information by offering a mentor program. (Interns) have a full-time employee assigned to them as their individual mentor. The interns are encouraged to meet with their mentors to ask question about tax law, their job responsibilities and general career options and choices that they will face after graduation.” he explained.

For Lynn Boisvert, the mentoring program and the culture at Sansiveri, Kimball and Co., L.L.P. was a large factor in her decision to accept a full-time position after interning at the company’s Newport office for two years.

“I liked the guidance I was getting from my mentors throughout the internship which led me to believe if they take the time to guide and help their interns grow, it’s probably a good place to work for,” said Boisvert, who joined the firm as a Staff Accountant more than a year ago.

Boisvert, a Salve Regina University graduate, now uses her ties to Salve to help the firm’s recruitment efforts there. She has spoken to an accounting class and participated in roundtable discussions about the profession at her alma mater.

Clare of Bryant University said alumni visits, such as Boisvert’s, are one effective and inexpensive way regional firms can better brand themselves. “Colleges are always looking for alumni to come back and speak. Sometimes it is a challenge, but it’s an area the big firms do well at,” she said.

Clare said each year Bryant reaches out to alumni to host a student for job shadowing during winter break. “When a student spends a day at a local firm and sees what a day is like at that firm, it is a good day for everyone,” she said.

The next career fair date for Bryant University is March 16.

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