Presented by Meredith Morris, Senior Research Analyst at Monster Intelligence, and Liz Friedman, Group Marketing Manager at Microsoft.

For the first part of the webcast, Meredith presented data from MonsterTrak’s 2008 Annual Entry-Level Job Outlook Survey.  Key takeaways:

• That although the number of companies planning on hiring recent college grads is decreasing, organizations that are planning to hire new grads are going to hire more than last year.  Meredith said there are several factors that influence this- she mentioned lower salaries for entry-level employees, increased technology skills in younger workers, and quality of talent as some possible few.
• There is a disconnect between employers and college job seekers on what the purpose of the interview is.  Job Seekers think the interview is designed to allow employers to assess their experience, while companies say they are looking to evaluate the candidate’s behaviors.

I am thinking…

Is your organization strategically planning on hiring new grads this year?  Is the total number up or down from last year?

How should we systemically address this soft versus hard skills evaluation issue to set expectations appropriately?

The second part of the webcast was a case study from Microsoft on creating a candidate value proposition, and Liz shared some great information with us.  I was most impressed by the “pillars” of their CVP- People, Opportunity and Impact.  What a cross-generational appealing message.  She also shared some examples of how MSFT is getting the “word” out about why candidates would want to work there using some really cool niche sites:

• Improving the Candidate Experience
• Valuing Diversity at Microsoft
• Thinking outside of the box- campus-style