Article

Employers

Tips and trends for modern recruiting

Find the talent you’re looking for

A job description is often a candidate’s first impression of your organization—and one of your most impactful opportunities to stand out from the crowd. So how do you write a job description that attracts the entry level talent you're trying to reach?

Some of the things that students and recent grads look for in a job description include:

What type of position is this?

Will this role help me gain experience?

What is the salary?

What are the perks and benefits?

Do I meet the qualifications?

Where is the position located, or is it remote?

Does this job require work authorization?

What is this employer’s reputation?

What are the employer’s values?

What makes this employer and this job special?

From writing with inclusive language to highlighting the skills that can be learned on the job, use the following five tips to uplevel your job descriptions and attract entry level job seekers.

Best practices for writing job descriptions for early talent

1. Use a relevant job title for entry level talent

Consider how students might search for your role and treat potential job titles like keywords. Be literal—new job seekers want and need consistency. Ensure the title in the job description is the same everywhere you post and promote your role. For example, if you're hiring for a position your industry commonly refers to as a “Business Development Specialist,” but you title it “B2B Corporate Sales” on your job post, you could miss out on potential pipeline.

2. Focus on skills, not experience

For your job description to resonate with early talent, you may need to rethink what’s required to be successful in your entry level roles. Of course, most recent grads have 0-5 years of experience, so you don’t want to put in a job description that 5 years of experience is required.

Shift to skills-based hiring by sourcing for skills, coursework, and certifications so that the job description is relevant to someone just starting out in their career. Highlight skills that a student can learn on the job to excite them about the opportunity to grow professionally. In addition to technical or hard skills, help students and job seekers easily identify which soft skills you’re looking for, too.

3. Write with inclusive language

As the most diverse generation yet, it’s no surprise that Gen Z uses diversity as a criteria for their evaluation of a job. In fact, more than 60% of Gen Zers indicated that they either always or usually research company leadership diversity, according to a Handshake Network Trends report.

Gen Z job seekers factor values alignment into decisions about where to buy and where to work. Your job description should highlight your mission, your values, and your culture, and be written using inclusive language. Job descriptions are an important part of your overall DEI strategy, too; for example, the term "hacker" can be perceived as gendered, so use "engineer" or "developer" instead.

4. Remove or loosen requirements

One way to help your role stand out to Gen Z is to be upfront about the application process. Clearly outline the steps, estimated timelines, and any required materials so they can plan accordingly. Transparency not only helps candidates feel more prepared but also builds trust in your organization from the start. By addressing their potential concerns early, you demonstrate empathy and respect for their time, which can make your company stand out in a competitive hiring landscape.

Keep in mind that many students are open to a range of industries regardless of their major; for example, last year, computer science students submitted only around half their applications to tech companies, with the remainder going to industries like manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and government.

5. State compensation and benefits

Gen Z values clear expectations for potential earnings alongside competitive benefits like flexible work schedules, tuition assistance, and learning stipends.  For example, if you’re not currently including in your job description that the role offers learning and development benefits, you could be missing out on talent: almost 9 in 10 undergrads say learning and development benefits are either important or essential when evaluating a job opportunity.

You can also showcase opportunities for building social connection and community, such as through ERGs or volunteering. As early career professionals explore where to live, how to start paying off student loans, and the type of culture they are drawn to, these are important details for marketing your open roles.

Many states now require pay transparency to comply with evolving legislation, making it critical for employers to stand out. By meeting these requirements and offering meaningful benefits, you can attract top talent and stay ahead in the competitive hiring landscape.

Reach the candidates you want with improved job descriptions

Writing engaging, inclusive, and clear job descriptions takes practice and patience—but the payoff is worth it. Once you update your job descriptions, you can better attract early career candidates excited to apply—and see a future with your employer.

Get detailed instructions on how to post a job on Handshake.

5 tips to improve your job description and attract early talent

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Understand which industries you're competing with

Discover top 10 skills and how you can use Handshake for skills-based hiring

Find your next engineer on Handshake

Pennymac is the leading financial services firm in the US offering a comprehensive range of mortgage products and services personalized to customers' goals. This customization and purpose-drivenness—which Gen Z looks for from brands—extends into Pennymac’s talent acquisition and development strategy, and is only part of how Pennymac appeals to early talent job seekers.

With 79% of Pennymac’s early talent hires influenced on Handshake, their university recruiting team has been really intentional about solving specific pain points with specific solutions and fully integrating Handshake into their workforce development planning.

Handshake sat down with the Pennymac team—Ian Thompson, FVP, Talent Development; Lisa Pick, VP of Talent Acquisition; and Lauren Di Giovanni, Senior University Recruiter—to learn how Pennymac uses Handshake to scale their campus recruiting, tell their brand story, and drive their strategy with data.

What are the business goals for Pennymac’s early talent programs?

Ian: Our early talent programs support specific business needs; Pennymac has a very clear strategic plan, and our early talent programs exist to support that strategic plan. Every department at the company sees early talent programs as a fantastic way to attract and grow the workforce needed for the future of our business. Because Pennymac’s early talent programs are so well supported, it gives participants a real sense of purpose, meaning, and impact.

We use Handshake to illustrate that vision and purpose, mainly through info sessions and events: we clearly articulate the program to potential candidates, communicating which departments they could work in, examples of the skills they can learn, and what opportunities could exist for them in the future.

What is a recruiting pain for your small team, and how are you solving for it?

Lisa: In the past, it was a challenge to build your brand and create awareness in the market, but Handshake has made that so much easier. We now have access to a system that can directly message jobs to target students at target schools. We can also build brand awareness via our Company Brand Page. We utilize the vast amount of data available to us via Handshake to the fullest and they help us fine tune our strategy every year.

What are some key results that your team has used Handshake to achieve?

Lisa: We’re all about gathering and using data, so we use Handshake Insights data reports to learn how effectively we're recruiting. For example, we can really get granular on who is applying, which messages are being opened, which schools see higher levels of engagement, and the effectiveness of our campaigns.

We’re a small but mighty team but the volume of effective job marketing that Handshake allows us to accomplish is incredible. If a hiring manager wants specific qualifications, we can enter all the pertinent information into the tool and then target via Handshake.

How do you provide consistent touch points throughout the candidate experience? What would you say are big drivers for converting candidates and standing out to students and new grads?

Lauren: We drive applicants to roles with Campaigns that we send to Segments of students. I set up a follow up message for 2 weeks later to remind them to apply. Even when I get DMs from students, I always respond to acknowledge their message and build that relationship and touchpoint. Once they apply, we keep them updated on next steps so they’re not messaging us with questions.

For the rotational program, students who accept offers don’t start for months so we keep engagement up with touchpoints each month, like virtual engagement sessions to learn about the team or benefits info. This increases retention by the time they start. Building relationships is a key driver to convert to full-time hires.

How do you scale campus recruitment across a team of your size?

Lauren: When we're looking at which career fairs to attend, the ones closest to our offices are most feasible but then we look at: do we have alumni from those schools who could come with us? This adds an additional touchpoint; an alum can message students at those schools to drive traction, and students can build a relationship with someone other than the recruiter for peer to peer support. We message drive potential applicants to invite them to attend webinars, expose them to our culture and programs, and we always follow up with CTA to apply.

What skills do you look for in early talent candidates?

Ian: When you’re a student or new grad with a resume, how do you differentiate yourself other than your degree? We look for critical thinking and analytical skills, effective communication, the ability for a candidate to build rapport and influence others. Do you demonstrate drive, grit and determination? Those are such important soft skills. We also look for digital literacy, and AI skills which are becoming more important.

What’s been a big win for your early talent program?

Lauren: We are open and transparent in terms of timelines, compensation, and growth opportunity, and we have received excellent feedback on the experience of participants in our programs. We’ve conducted informal student surveys asking for candidates’ opinions if we're thinking of making tweaks to our program. We usually do this in July as we start our fall planning. And we’ve taken their feedback literally and actually shifted plans as a result of those student surveys.

Lisa: We are proud of our recruitment process, both in terms of how we’re able to strategize using data, but also in terms of providing a positive candidate experience. We have seen incredible success in our early talent programs.

Pennymac is building a workforce for the future

Pennymac’s university recruiting team has worked hard to integrate Handshake into everything they do, and have earned the results to prove it. Lisa, Ian, and Lauren are shaping the next generation of professionals who will drive innovation, adapt to changing market demands, and make an impact at Pennymac.

Discover more recruiting team spotlights →




How Pennymac uses Handshake for data-driven university recruiting

Have you ever had this thought?

I worry that candidates don’t know enough about my company to want to work here. I want to stand out to early talent and learn how to use Handshake to build my employer brand with Gen Z.

If so, we hear you!

So we thought it would be helpful to share how you can build a brand that early talent loves—on Handshake, where your target audience of Gen Z talent can get to know you better.

Why it's important to invest in your up-funnel recruiting strategy

We looked at Handshake Network Trends research as well as platform data to identify Gen Z job seeker behaviors on Handshake. For example, in a survey of the Class of 2024:

94% of students would consider applying in the future if they had a positive experience with an employer

75% of students read reviews of an employer brand before applying to a job

73% of students are more likely to apply to a job after seeing employer content

If you haven’t gotten started yet with your up-funnel recruiting strategy on Handshake, here are some tips for building a brand that early talent loves.

6 things that early talent loves from an employer brand

1. Authenticity

Employer brands that Gen Z talent considers authentic are showing they’re a trusted voice in the space, keeping content casual and not overly produced, and using approachable language and tone.

The way you deliver content, like on the Handshake feed, matters to Gen Z, who prioritize authenticity from brands. What type of Handshake feed content, hiring events, and messages can help you get authentic and conversational with Gen Z job seekers?

Relatable day in the life content to help students see themselves in the role

Career advice and tips that are empathetic to students and new grads navigating a big transition

Industry insights and trends to build trust and credibility in your brand

Application and interview tips from recruiters to set students up for success

Networking advice from relatable sources, especially for underrepresented talent

Peeks behind the scenes, like office/site tours or typical schedule information, can demystify the job

2. Transparency

One way to build brand affinity with early talent is to be transparent across talent acquisition channels. A student having to search far and wide for info that can help them decide between one employer and another won't make a positive brand impression.

Building a brand that early talent loves includes being transparent about what you can offer. For instance, tailor your job descriptions geared at an entry-level audience to clearly list:

Salary range

Benefits

Work schedule

Work location

Professional development perks

For another example, Teach for America's Recruiting Director took an application FAQ from students to mythbust: “How much does my GPA really matter?” and scaled his response into thoughtful, transparent content on the Handshake feed.

3. Engagement

Your brand can stand apart from the rest by engaging with early talent, human to human, all the way through the hiring funnel. For example:

Comment on student's posts on the Handshake feed

Help students build their networks through events

Keep interns and entry level hires engaged once they’re onboarded

Joining the conversation by commenting on student's posts is a great way to make your brand more accessible, especially if it's less well-known. This gives students a chance to explore your profile and your brand page, which can turn the flywheel on impressions, follows, and overall engagement—and boost your brand's organic growth. 

Plus, students are 2.2X as likely to click on an employer message if they previously saw a post from that employer on the Handshake feed. Being more active on social channels like the Handshake feed is also a good way for you to build community with your peers!

4. Peer reviews

Gen Z job seekers look to peer reviews, testimonials, and real employee experiences to research employers. On a Professional or Advanced Handshake Brand Page, you can include employee testimonials, videos, feature posts from the Handshake feed, and other dynamic content to help students picture what it’s like to work for your brand.

It’s not just on Handshake and digital channels where you’re building your brand—it’s on campus too, through tried and true channels like word-of-mouth. You can further amplify your brand by empowering Advocates and line of business stakeholders outside the recruiting team on best practices for representing your brand through campus events and personalized messaging.

5. Follow up

First time job seekers don’t necessarily have perspective on what the working world is really like, or how their skills can map to a job, career, or industry. Early career candidates will love a recruiting experience that provides clear next steps, so you can stand out by following up after each touchpoint in the hiring process.

For instance, after an interview, provide feedback that will help the candidate learn and grow—and show that you’re invested in their success. Driving qualified candidates to take next steps is something you’re uniquely positioned to execute on—and measure—on Handshake.

Another way to follow up is to ask for feedback. From sending out a survey after an event to learn what you did well and what you could do better, to asking in a poll on the Handshake feed about which swag you should bring to a career fair, you can become a brand that early talent loves by listening to their feedback.

6. Have fun!

The interactions you and your team have with students at fairs and events, through interviews and message exchanges, and on your digital channels all contribute to a student’s impression of your brand. 

Now that “influencer” is a career path in and of itself, campus recruiters can take notes from Gen Z for how you can market your opportunities. In the age of AI perhaps more than ever, your brand can stand out with humor, creativity, empathy, and fun!

For example, the Cognizant team posted a video to the Handshake feed poking fun at themselves while being supportive of students' success, with a script that several recruiters voiced over that ended with a CTA:

“We’re campus recruiters. Of course I have a basement full of swag, and a purse full of Sharpies and hand sanitizer.”

“I’m a campus recruiter. Of course I’m gonna give you unsolicited career advice.”

“We are campus recruiters. Of course we think you’re a good fit for the role. But we want to know why YOU think so!”

Build. That. Brand!

Handshake offers students and employers so many ways to connect throughout the college to career journey. Recruiting teams that think like marketers are the ones that will win with Gen Z talent. Use Handshake as a platform for not just achieving your recruiting goals, but also for building a brand that early talent loves.

Check out the Handshake feed for inspiration on how the employer community is engaging students and new grads with authentic content.




Try these 6 things to build your employer brand on Handshake

Lean team, big impact: How Manassas City Public Schools achieved a 25x boost in applicants.

MoLo Solutions is a transportation and logistics company, and its hiring goals are a moving target, too. But even with ever-changing industry and market conditions, MoLo’s talent team understands the importance of maintaining their brand recognition and building a consistent candidate pipeline. When their needs change, they’ll be prepared.

Caitlin Roth, Manager, Talent at MoLo sat down with Handshake to discuss how her team’s early talent attraction strategy is both responsive to the market and proactive for the future.

Can you describe your early talent hiring program?

Our early talent hiring program is ever changing. Our goals can be as high as hiring over 300 people in one year, but they're always a moving target because our hiring goals are actually very dependent on the transportation market. We’re typically hiring for entry level sales and customer service, evergreen positions as well as summer internship programs.


The biggest challenge that our industry is facing has to do with the transportation market, because it’s very dependent on the economy. But even in times of uncertainty, my team understands the importance of maintaining our brand recognition among students, and building a consistent pipeline of candidates…so that when our needs do change, we are prepared.

Let’s dig into how your broad school network enables scalable outreach and high-touch candidate engagement. Last year MoLo received applications from 318 of your partner schools, a 119% increase from the previous year. Can you speak to how your school partner strategy has helped you achieve the quantity, quality, and diversity that you were looking for?

With such a lean team, it is not feasible for us to travel to all of the schools that we receive applications from. We typically travel regionally to colleges and universities located near our offices, but School Explorer has been a great tool within Handshake that my team has used to determine which schools we visit in person and virtually. There are so many great search functionalities within School Explorer that we’ve used to research which schools have supply chain and sales programs, diversity and inclusion focused organizations, specific locations students are interested in. Then we’re able to target our campaigns and messages, for example, to those students saying that we know they're interested in those areas.

How you think about the schools you’ll visit in-person vs. where you’ll do virtual events, and can you give us a sense of the types of events you host?

Since we typically only travel regionally, we really leverage Handshake to host a lot of virtual events at schools that are located all across the country. We've hosted informational branding sessions to talk about who MoLo is and what we do, since third party logistics isn’t as well-known as other industries. We've done intern and alumni meet and greets, and skill based events where we've taught students sales skills, networking skills, resume building skills so that they can walk away from the events with something beneficial to them and their professional development. We've also hosted a lot of underrepresented group focus panels through Handshake, like with our Women in Supply Chain ERG. So that's something I'm really proud of.

Tell us about your "Shadow Day" event, and how you’ve used Handshake to source students for this opportunity.

This is an experience where students get to come visit our Chicago office and see what a day in the life looks like working at MoLo. Not only do you get an understanding of the industry, you get to see the positions that you could potentially be working in, and experience our culture firsthand. We use Segments to source candidates who are located in Chicago or whose location preferences indicate Chicago, who also have an interest in the transportation industry. That made the invitations really segmented and ensured that we were inviting the right people to build those relationships with. 

We invite a range of students from first years to seniors, so we start that early talent pipeline and the relationships with those students, but then can capture the juniors and seniors that are eligible for our internship and full time opportunities as well.

Two smart actions that have resulted in successful proactive sourcing for MoLo have been sending campaigns and hosting events. This is incredible: you’ve seen a 94% increase in job views and a whopping 477% increase in event RSVPs! Can you share how your high-touch outreach strategies have helped you build your brand, fill your pipeline, and see ROI?

My team and I have gotten really creative with our messaging in terms of subject lines, formatting, and content. We even got the idea to do this by attending several Handshake webinars to better understand how to attract Gen Z candidates, and then use that information to tailor the messaging in our Campaigns to be very personalized and specific to what these candidates are looking for.


But it's about so much more than just sending the right messages. It's about sending them to the right people. So using tools like Segment filters and Top Matches within Handshake helps us manage our outreach to students to promote MoLo leading up to the events and fairs that we're attending or hosting to make sure that we're meeting the right people. Which ultimately maximizes our ROI.

In 2024, MoLo received a Handshake Early Talent Award—congrats! Can you tell us how you’re building a culture that attracts students and recent grads?

I’m incredibly proud of my team's work over the past year and so grateful for the recognition we've received for the experience we create both for our candidates and our employees that we're bringing into the organization every single year. We've done so much research, you know, through Handshake webinars and through our own surveys to understand what our current employees want and need to be successful, and what Gen Z new hires and interns are looking for. And we are always implementing that feedback and the information and data. 

I'm really proud to be a part of an organization like MoLo that is people first, and truly believes in hands on training, support, and mentorship so that we can set up all of our interns and new hires for the best successful careers that they could have ever imagined.

Learn more about MoLo’s award-winning program.




Staying prepared through market conditions: Q&A with MoLo Solutions on building a consistent candidate pipeline

As one of the world’s largest food companies with more than 30,000 employees, General Mills seeks top talent to support its purpose of making food the world loves. 

Recruiting at college campus events has been a successful way for General Mills to achieve its talent acquisition strategic goals, from exposure to hire. And when in-person opportunities aren’t available, hosting virtual events has been a great extension to their traditional recruitment. In fact, about one-third of their early talent hiring is a result of having a strong virtual events strategy.

General Mills’ Campus Talent Acquisition and Talent Brand Leader, Elizabeth Diley, sat down with Handshake to chat about best practices for campus recruiting events, and the impact of brand building with early talent during the most formative period of career discovery.

Advice for planning campus recruiting events that convert

What

General Mills has developed a dynamic events strategy to educate students about career opportunities within the company. This comes to life through sharing practical advice, storytelling, and authentic interaction with current employees throughout the business. For example, through General Mills events, students can practice their networking skills, hear about the company’s sustainability efforts and impact, or get interviewing tips.

Advice: Host events that are true to your brand. If students don’t RSVP or show up to your events, take a look at your messaging content, and even your culture. What attracts a student to an event is informed by more than just an email invite.

Who

General Mills partners with Handshake to reach students at schools across the US. General Mills is represented at events by employees across the business, including members of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), former interns, and C-level executives.

Advice: Highlight your people as much as your product. Part of bringing your story to life is about who is telling your company’s stories.

Where

While General Mills has a strong in-person presence at their set of core schools, they maximize resources and reach through virtual events—ensuring they tap into top talent nationwide. Virtual events make it easier to scale their search and identify qualified top talent at the most schools possible. For example, one of their recent virtual recruitment events attracted more than 1,500 registrants.

Advice: Are there regions, groups, or schools where you need to do some more education on opportunities that your company offers to early career talent?

When

Their events strategy is tied to their recruiting cycle, which includes an event in the spring when summer internships open up. This timing offers students early access to apply, which ensures events are converting into pipeline for the talent team. Even though events are hosted during peak campus recruiting season, General Mills adapts their virtual strategy throughout the year based on business needs and hiring requirements.

Advice: Events should result in inbound applications during peak recruiting seasons and should be utilized for awareness and exposure during off-peak seasons. Every year, your events can look different depending on where you want to hone in.

Why

General Mills’ strategy is driven by the desire to cultivate talent and foster a deeper connection with students who are both potential employees and consumers of their products. By presenting their company culture in an authentic and engaging manner, General Mills aims to attract top talent who resonate with their values.

Advice: Poll students for feedback after events and look to those results for where you can improve—or to show your leadership.

A virtual events strategy that translates to ROI

General Mills can attribute a lot of their candidate conversion to their events strategy. Of course, for a company whose brands are in a majority of people’s homes, their name recognition is admittedly a door opener. But that doesn’t mean students know what to expect from the application process, the employee experience, or know how a brand comes to life through its workforce.

General Mills has built a college recruiting event strategy that offers students ways to navigate their career paths with confidence and clarity. That translates to ROI for students, and ROI for General Mills.

Learn more about why General Mills is one of the best places to launch early careers.

General Mills’ strategy for successful campus recruiting events

Lamb Weston, a global potato product supplier, has made its brand more recognizable to students on Handshake despite its lean team of three university recruiters—with 20,000+ applications in 2023 and a 22% job view to application rate.

So, how does Lamb Weston achieve campus recruiting efficiencies with its small but mighty team—and earn a 2024 Handshake Early Talent Award alongside brands with household names?

Check out this Q&A with Nate Pedronan, Talent Acquisition Project Manager at Lamb Weston, for key takeaways on:

Developing a consistent messaging and outreach strategy that makes a lesser known brand memorable to students

Leveraging hybrid tactics by blending digital engagement with on-site presence

Using Handshake data to test messaging tactics and expand school partnerships to build a stronger pipeline

Providing a comprehensive internship program that includes mentorship, projects that are meaningful to the business, and day-in-the-life exposure

Q&A: Small team, big wins with Lamb Weston

Can you share how your small team achieves impressive engagement levels, particularly through messaging with students?

It always starts with the team, right? We have a small team of three that hires for 30-50 interns every year. Having a strategy and message with that team is first and foremost. It's our mission as a group to inspire passion for early career development. And I think that carries on through all of our messaging, how we interact with students when we're on campus. If you don't have a team that's saying the same thing…it becomes very confusing in terms of the candidate experience.

Tell us about how you evolved your campus recruiting strategy to include digital engagement.

We learned a lot from COVID. Campus was shut down, we couldn't do anything on-site. So we moved our strategy to fully virtual [and asked ourselves]: Are there virtual internships that we can do? And if there are virtual internships, how do we reach those students? I'm happy there's a return to campus, but we were still able to take our lessons learned from moving to digital. And now we have this cool hybrid approach.

How do you attract students to jobs in the manufacturing industry?

You may not have heard of our company before, but I guarantee you, if you have ever eaten a French fry in your life, you probably have eaten one of our products.


It's funny because you know, we go on campus and our booth always gets like this weird side eye if they've never seen us before…like, “tell me why I care about potatoes!” But everybody likes French fries, so it's hard to not have fun with it. They'll remember that crazy potato company that invited you to a virtual info session and had really animated people excited about french fries.

Your job locations are primarily outside of major metro areas. How do you build a  pipeline of students interested in working where your plants are?

Our plants are located primarily in the Pacific Northwest and in some rural locations where it might be hard to find talent. Historically there was a list of schools that business leaders would tell us to go to because they're in our backyard. But we're pigeonholing ourselves by just looking at these schools. We were able to leverage Handshake to open up our radius to where we can’t make it on site.

For example, students that might be from our local area but are going to school somewhere else—we were missing that candidate pool. What about students that might be coming from military backgrounds that genuinely are open to relocating? We’ve used messages to find interested students from a variety of different locations, not in our backyard. We started to incorporate that into our on-site strategy and say, "hey, Handshake data is telling us candidates from [a certain school] want to apply." And it's been hugely successful. We've been able to hire interns from different schools we never had before.

What messaging tactics have you learned work well to engage students?

Before we go on-site, we're sending out messages to announce that we'll be there on site. We're hosting virtual info sessions to highlight, not just "hey, we have jobs" but "hey, if you're an engineer, join this info session where we’ll have an engineer talk about engineering…and by the way, we are hiring for internships, come meet us at the booth and learn more."

We’ve learned from Handshake that we have a fairly strong open rate in the market. We do a lot of subject line testing, maybe throw a French fry emoji. 🍟 We test, test, test, then learn from mistakes and talk about it as a group.

Messaging that might work for the main company website doesn’t necessarily resonate with somebody looking for a job, or an early career candidate looking for their first experience. 

How do you make career fairs more memorable for students?

You have five minutes, students are half listening to you, they just want to give you their resume and then move on to the next booth to get swag, right? You need to maximize the time. With a brand like ours, we're not a household name, so we need to work pretty hard at making that type of digital and in person experience memorable.


Even through our swag, our messaging is consistent. When we go on campus we bring this squishy French Fry box with QR codes that go to our career site. Blending digital with on site was pretty critical for us and figuring out what that healthy medium is.

Can you share what makes your internship program so special for students?

Developing strategies aligning with the business has been pretty critical for us. Our internship program is about 12 weeks. We always get a mentor who is responsible for creating the Capstone project that each intern is responsible for. [Mentors are] who are going to convert our interns into full time hires. We provide other opportunities like “learning from leaders” presentations because if we’re going to hire an intern, we want them to understand not just their job or their project, but how does their project fit into the bigger picture. 

And you've got to have fun activities for everyone too. The intern program includes tours of what we call our Willy Wonka French Fry Tour factory—interns get to taste test, see how fries are made, where our food scientists sit. We actually fly interns out to our farms to see where potatoes are grown, and provide them housing relocation assistance.



Scale your small team and win big

Lamb Weston uses hybrid engagement strategies to tell a consistent brand message throughout the candidate experience, proving that even lesser known brands with small teams can win big with early talent. 

Editor’s note: This interview has been condensed for length and clarity.




Small team, big wins: Q&A with Lamb Weston on campus recruiting efficiencies

When students are exploring opportunities and engaging with employers on Handshake, they’re starting to imagine their career journeys. So imagine the impact you could make with the right message, at the right time.

Messaging Campaigns help you scale your outreach to early talent across  schools on Handshake. An invitation to attend an event, apply to a job, or learn about your brand is a moment that matters to a student or recent grad...and can improve conversion for you.

What are Campaigns on Handshake?

Campaigns is a premium end-to-end messaging hub within Handshake Talent Engagement Suite that gives you the ability to:

Generate leads by asking prospective candidates to RSVP to events and fairs

Send unlimited 1:1 messages to build relationships

Scale your outreach to a large volume of students

Personalize your messages with dynamic variables

Automate your workflow with smart lists and saved templates

How do Campaigns help talent teams?

Talent acquisition teams can scale their outreach and improve conversion with Campaigns. For example:

Target a qualified and relevant audience to engage with

Nurture top talent who may not be ready to apply yet

Connect with students outside of "peak seasons" on-campus

Expose your brand to students early in their college experience so you stay top of mind

Invite teammates—for example, ERG leads or hiring managers—to message top talent

Connecting with talent through Campaigns can improve conversion. For example, according to Handshake platform data, you can achieve:

62% increase in job applications when attaching a campaign message to a job

141% increase in event RSVPs when attaching a campaign message to an event

40% increase in virtual career fair RSVPs when attaching a campaign message to a virtual career fair

8 tips for building strong Campaigns on Handshake

Engage students across multiple touch points to improve your conversion rates. Based on Handshake data, use these tips to get more efficient and stand out to students.

Find the right students. You can start by creating your targeted audience Segment with 20+ filters, or building your audience within the Campaigns tool.

Personalize message content. Let students know why you’re reaching out, and make sure your message is relevant. According to Handshake survey data, students want to know about salary expectations (95%), essential skills (69%), and growth opportunities (64%).

Use simple formatting, and be concise. Plain text is best. Don’t use fancy formatting, unnecessary capitalization, or too many links—stick with one hyperlinked CTA. But you can add personality while keeping it professional with emojis here and there!

Be strategic with your Campaign schedule. According to Handshake data, students are most active on Handshake in the evening and most typically respond to messages between 5-8PM.

Follow up and stay in touch. Keep top talent warm. For example, after attending a career event, 64% of students want to get a message recommending specific jobs to apply to.

Respond to messages. Let students know you’re monitoring your inbox and looking forward to hearing from them. As a best practice, log in to Handshake at least once per day to stay on top of your inbox and respond to candidates.

Enable team members to send messages. Students want to hear about current employees’ personal experiences applying to and working for your company. Add an Advocate to your message to bring internal perspectives and authenticity to your Campaign.

Get more efficient. Save your top performing messages as templates that you’ll use over and over again.


Improve conversion with Campaigns

Create Campaigns to engage targeted audiences, power a high touch candidate experience, and achieve impressive results for your early talent programs. For more messaging best practices, check out:

How to write a recruiting message to students (plus 7 templates) 

4 steps to a winning message that engages college talent 

8 dos and don’ts of messaging underrepresented students 





