Josh TolanIn the 22nd episode of The Recruiting Reel, Lauren Berger, the CEO and Founder of InternQueen.com, discusses how to guide young professionals through your hiring process and into long term careers at your organization. Here’s the transcript:
Josh Tolan: My name is Josh Tolan and I’m the CEO of Spark Hire, the leading video interviewing platform used by thousands of organizations around the world.
And this is The Recruiting Reel, a video series in which we discuss real recruiting challenges with prominent recruiting experts to provide you with actionable tips you can apply to your own recruiting
With the summer internship season fast approaching, the release of this episode couldn’t have better timing.
Today, we’re joined by the Intern Queen herself, Lauren Berger. She is the CEO and Founder of InternQueen.com which offers a more personalized way for young people to connect with the internships and career opportunities of their dreams. She’s authored several best-selling books, speaks at over 50 events per year, has been featured on major media outlets, and has an extremely popular YouTube channel.
As you begin to recruit, hire, and onboard your next group of interns or young professionals, it’s important for you to understand how to guide them through your hiring process and into careers at your organization.
With Lauren’s experience working with young professionals and employers, she is the perfect expert for this topic. Take it away, Lauren!
Lauren Berger: Hi! I’m Lauren Berger, CEO and founder of InternQueen.com!
Biggest obstacles Gen Z faces in the hiring process
To answer these questions, the first one is what are the biggest obstacles Gen Z faces in the hiring process and in transitioning into a new role with an employer. I think one of the biggest obstacles is that there seems to be a disconnect between the skillset that employers look for and the skill set students graduate with. So I think that opportunities like internships are crucial because it’s an opportunity for young people to really understand what it takes to be successful at work.
Hiring young professionals
The second one is what strategies can recruiters and hiring professionals use to help Gen Z navigate the hiring process. I think the best strategy employers can utilize is providing feedback. It’s interesting timing with this video as we’re going to be doing exit interviews and giving feedback to our fall interns today! And it’s so important that our interns really hear and realize this feedback because their insight into what employers are looking for in the real world.
Empowering young professionals at your organization
Number 3! How can recruiters and hiring professionals hit the ground running and adopt a positive role in their company from day one? I think the way recruiters can help Gen Z get set up for success from day one is identifying what these young people want to eventually be doing and help lay out their career path. Show them that they’re not at this job forever, you’re at this job to hit benchmark one, and benchmark two, and benchmark three and so on. I think when you can see that big picture, and you don’t just feel like you’re coming to work to come to work and there’s no upward mobility, that’s how Gen Z can really see the bigger picture and be really successful.
Josh Tolan: And that’s why they call her the Intern Queen!
Building on top of what Lauren said, it’s super important for you to understand that not every young professional knows exactly what they want to do or what their skills are best suited for. In fact, most don’t and that’s okay!
It’s your job as a recruiter or hiring manager to identify the candidate’s strengths throughout the hiring process and identify areas where they can add value within the organization. Of course, you should be framing this in light of the position they are interviewing for, but you should also be thinking about the bigger picture and what their growth opportunities look like.
As Lauren mentioned, it’s critical that you provide feedback to young professionals. These people want to know what you think about them. This starts in the hiring process, continues into their internship, and even beyond that once they are full time.
And make these conversations a two-way street. Encourage them to brainstorm with you. What do they think they’ll do well in? Where do they see themselves growing? What do they like? What do they dislike?
The younger generation wants to know you’re invested in them. You have a ton of opportunities to demonstrate this as earlier as your first conversation with them in the hiring process.
Show them you care and this will help you not only guide them through your hiring process, but also into long-term careers at your organization.
I want to thank Lauren Berger for joining us today. If you’d like to learn more about her company, check out the website at internqueen.com. To connect with Lauren on LinkedIn, please use the URL below (https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenberger). Also, follow her on Twitter @InternQueen and you can subscribe to her YouTube channel at youtube.com/internqueen
Thank you for watching The Recruiting Reel and stay tuned for more episodes. For additional HR and recruiting content, head over to hr.sparkhire.com and subscribe. Also, follow us on Twitter, @sparkhire. And subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to know about the newest episodes of The Recruiting Reel.
Thanks again for watching and happy recruiting!
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