Why You Should Consider Hiring a 2021 College Graduate
Jul 14, 2021
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Hiring remains a struggle for most businesses in the current economic climate, and it can really pay to take the time and explore options that might seem a bit outside of the box. It seems like a no-brainer that hiring someone with a few years of experience is preferable to hiring someone just out of college; however, the truth is more complex, and there are actually several advantages (especially in the current business environment) to hiring new college graduates.Effort, energy, enthusiasm, and interest: Whether we admit it or not, most people get tired and burnt out to some degree or another a few years into their careers. A new path is just not as exciting a few miles down as it was at the start of it. While it is true that employees learn a lot during the time it takes for them to gain the experience you want them to have, it is also true that – provided you hire well – recent graduates will more often than not come out of the gates with endless effort, energy, enthusiasm, and interest. This does not just mean that they will pick up the skills you need them to have very quickly, it also means that these qualities will spill over into every aspect of their work. In many cases, the injection of youthful energy can also rub off on other employees and energize the organization as a whole.
A tabula rasa: When you hire a recent college graduate, you get a tabula rasa – Latin for “blank slate”; this means that they do not come burdened with old habits, methodologies, or values. You get a chance to mold your new hire to develop habits and values that are in line with your organization’s from the get-go. Often, when you hire an experienced employee they will come with predetermined notions of how things should be done. Employees that are used to working in a different environment may resent having to learn to do things differently than they are used to. Or worse, they might just keep doing things the way they used to do them instead of the way that your organization would like them to be done. Of course, the very fact that new graduates are a blank slate also means that they do not have an employment history to judge from; however, this is not as big of an issue as it might seem at first glance. A lot can be learned from a look at their transcripts and a look at their background checks.
Do not underestimate the value of technology: No matter what industry you are in it is a virtual certainty that you deal with technology in some way shape or form. Even businesses that seem totally removed from modern technology would likely still benefit a great deal from an improved website or social media presence. Hiring a new college graduate can make an enormous impact on your digital presence while also allowing your business to function more smoothly because they are able to resolve technical issues for which you would have normally had to have called for help. The students that are graduating college today have grown up with technology – it is just a part of the environment to them, and their knowledge of it can be invaluable.
Diversity: Studies have shown that groups with diverse members outperform homogeneous groups. The reason for this is that getting input from people with widely varying backgrounds allows for groups to generate and analyze a far greater range of ideas than a homogenous group would. College students today are more diverse than ever before who will bring in diverse ideas generated both from their youth and from their cultural context.
Availability: Even if you normally would not consider hiring a new college graduate for a job opening, now might be a good time to start. The fact is that it very well simply may not be possible to find talent with the experience you want. Take some time to review the exact nature of the job and ask yourself how long it would take for an especially bright and motivated person with no training to learn what they need to know. More often than not, you will be surprised by how much they can learn in a few months if you time out how long it would take them to learn each thing. The advantages of hiring a new college graduate combined with their greater availability just might wind up being better for your business than trying to find the perfect experienced candidate.
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