Graduate recruiters should not dismiss the value of the traditional ‘milk round’ as two thirds of final year students intend to use the experience to help make up their minds as to which employer to go for.
According to a survey among 915 students that are about to graduate undertaken by recruitment outsourcers TMP Worldwide, almost nine out of 10 plan to attend the milk round, indicating that, even though they may be digital natives, they still value face-to-face contact.
As a result, three out of five said they would be put off by an employer if people on the stand appeared disinterested, while 56% indicated that they did not simply want to be directed to the company’s website if they made the effort to visit them.
The aim for nearly a third was to gain an accurate sense of what it would be like to work for an organisation and to obtain details about the graduate schemes they had available. To this end, 45% said they would prefer to meet other graduate trainees rather than senior managers or the recruitment team to better understand what their working life was like.
More than 90% of respondents said they would be prepared to visit the stand of an employer that they had not considered in their career planning if it appeared interesting and imaginative, but they did expect the contact to be followed up, with two thirds preferring to receive a personalised email.
Neil Harrison, TMP’s director of research and planning, warned, however, that although students found the opportunity to meet employers on a face-to-face basis useful, many were unsure of how to make the most of such events.
As a result, he said: “Employers have the opportunity through their other student channels to really drive interest and capitalise on their on-campus investment. Students are digital natives but still appreciate the personal touch.”
Some nine out of ten of the final year students questioned said they were unsure of what a typical employer presentation consisted, although 36% confirmed they would attend one from an organisation that they felt had a good reputation.
In news elsewhere, BT said that, after not attending milk rounds in 2009, it intended to do so this year, after reintroducing a large-scale graduate recruitment programme. Earlier this year, the telco caused controversy by indicating that it would end graduate recruitment ‘indefinitely’, before then issuing a retraction saying that it had no plans to close its scheme for good but would re-open it when circumstances became more favourable.
The firm has now indicated that it will make 133 places available for graduates on its two-year leadership development programme, but intends to lift the academic bar following strong demand. Graduates will now be expected to achieve a 2:1 degree and have 320 Ucas points compared to 280 last year.
