Fall 2023 Northeastern Talent Connect Event
Thank you for your interest in Northeastern University’s Fall 2023 Talent Connect! Employer registration is now CLOSED.
Please see the information below in regards to participation requirements, registration process, Best Practices, and the Fall 2023 Talent Connect Schedule.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to [email protected].
HOW TO REGISTER | BEST PRACTICES | FAQ
Introduction
Talent Connect is Northeastern University’s biannual, university-wide, boutique, virtual recruiting event. It enables employers to host an open student/job-candidate forum. This event is not designed as a traditional virtual career fair, but rather as a group interaction to facilitate effective recruitment. The Talent Connect sessions allow for learning more about each other – the employers’ businesses and career opportunities, and the students’ interests and qualifications. Following these sessions, employers have the ability to identify and interview appropriate students towards the goal of meeting their recruitment needs.
Employer Engagement & Career Design will be hosting the Fall 2023 Talent Connect using NUworks. Students and employers will access the event through their NUworks account, which is powered by Symplicity. NUworks is the same platform used for organizations to post jobs and internships.
The event will take place over the course of several days.
The event is of NO COST to participating employers.
Event Schedule
CLOSED
Mon 10/2 | Tue 10/3 | Wed 10/4 | Thu 10/5 | Fri 10/6 |
CLOSED “Ask a Recruiter”: Arts/Media/Social Impact | CLOSED “Ask a Recruiter”: STEM Day 1 | CLOSED “Ask a Recruiter”: Business Day 1 | CLOSED “Ask a Recruiter”: Healthcare | CLOSED “Ask a Recruiter”: STEM Day 2 |
Mon 10/9 | Tue 10/10 | Wed 10/11 | ||
Indigenous People’s Day – Campus Closed | CLOSED “Ask a Recruiter”: Business Day 2 | CLOSED “Ask a Recruiter”: STEM Day 3 |
To participate in the Northeastern Talent Connect event, employers must be able to commit to:
- Posting one or more open positions on our career portal, NUworks;
- Hosting an “Ask a Recruiter” group session with our students; and
- After the group session, hosting 1:1 interviews with appropriate students.
We have designated specific days for a particular recruiting focus. Please sign up for the day or days that best fits your organization’s current hiring needs. The categories are:
- Business (Finance, Marketing, Consulting, FinTech, Banking, etc.)
- STEM (Engineering, Research, Software/Hardware Development, Bioinformatics, etc.)
- Social Impact/Arts/Media (Journalism, Non-profit, Government, Television, Graphic Design, etc.)
- Healthcare (Pharmacy, Clinical Research, Mental Health, etc.)
To Register:
- If you are new to the system, go to https://nuworks.northeastern.edu/employers and follow the “Sign Up” instructions (versus the “Sign In” path). If you have forgot your password, go to https://nuworks.northeastern.edu/employers and click “forgot password” to sign in.
- Log into NUworks with your employer email address and password.
- Click on ‘Events’ in the left-hand sidebar, then ‘Employer Sessions’
- Click ‘Request Employer Session’ (it will be in the middle of the page, you may have to scroll to see it)
- Choose ‘Northeastern Talent Connect’ from the drop-down menu at the top of the page
- Fill in a title for your event. We recommend something similar to ‘Ask a Recruiter from [your company name]’
- Please note: This is how students will identify your session as part of the Talent Connect.
- Choose ‘Virtual’ for the location – this event is fully remote
- Fill in the description box with a short blurb about your company and the positions that your company will be recruiting for.
- Please note: This information is critical to a student’s decision to attend your session. Please describe your organization and your current open positions as clearly as possible.
Adding Video Links:
You must include live meeting links to the video platform your organization is using (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.).
- Enter a unique video meeting link in the ‘Virtual Meeting Link’ field after choosing ‘Virtual’ as the Location Type
Choosing your Talent Connect Date:
- The group sessions span three weeks, with specific days designated to a specific recruiting focus. Please feel free to register for as many days and/or sessions as appropriate for your recruitment needs.
- Once you’ve chosen your date(s), please fill in the time(s) you will be available to chat with students. The event begins at 11am ET and ends at 8pm ET, so please choose times within that frame when you can chat with students. You can host more than one session in one day.
- Please note: If you are hosting more than one session in one day, please request separate sessions for each time. For example, submit one request from 11am-1pm, and then a separate request for 4pm-6pm.
Scheduling 1:1 interviews:
- After you host your group session, employers must schedule, at their convenience, 1:1 interviews with appropriate Northeastern students.
1) Post Your Jobs & Internships BEFORE the Event (Required)
- Before the Talent Connect event, post your available job, internship, or co-op opportunities in NUworks.
- To promote your opportunities to students, please notify us when they have been posted at [email protected].
2) Check Your Tech
- Check to make sure you are using the most up-to-date version of your browser. Please update the browser, closeout, and reopen the browser if you are not.
- Double-check that your speaker/microphone and camera settings are enabled.
- Please do not wait until the day of the fair to make updates to your registration, such as adding representatives or updating meeting links. Updates need to be approved by our team and can take up to an hour to appear to students even after approval.
3) Finalize Your Student Engagement Plan
- Confirm Video Chat Plans: Please check with your event team lead/booth manager (or share these details with your team) to confirm how your organization is planning to participate. Usually, this is the member of your team that submitted the event registration form.
- Group Sessions: Consider coming prepared with 1-3 slides with information about your organization and opportunities. Organizations are welcome to host short presentations that start at specific times, but know that students will pop in and out of your group chat.
- Contact Students: Before or during the Talent Connect event, you can encourage students to attend your session by contacting your RSVP’d students.
- Log into your NUworks account and navigate to Events > Employer Sessions > then click the title of the event that you registered for.
- Go to the “Reservations” tab, select the students you wish to email, and click on “Batch Options” at the top of the list. The mailing option is titled “Mail To Checked.”
- Feel free to include information regarding the types of roles you are recruiting for at the event.
- Unfortunately, there is no way to review your message before sending it to students. The system also does not confirm the message has been sent. Please be aware of this to avoid sending multiple versions of the same email to students.
- You can also use the “Save As Excel” button to pull the list of RSVP’d students and the “Generate Publication” button to create a resume book.
Conducting Group “Ask the Recruiter” Sessions:
- Organizations can decide the format and schedule of group sessions. As a participating employer, you are expected to offer at least one “Ask the Recruiter” session on the day that you are registered. However, please note that you are also able to offer additional types of programming as well, such as workshops and panels, as long as the programming corresponds to the industry.
- To highlight your group session(s), consider promoting this information in your registration’s “Description” section. This section displays prominently to students.
- Based on previous experiences, we recommend hosting these as drop-by, open Q&A sessions. Consider coming prepared with 1-3 slides with information about your program/opportunities.
- Organizations are welcome to host short presentations that start at specific times, but know that students will pop in and out of your group session.
- Students will be able to join your group session directly from the meeting link you provided.
- Note, many students wait until the day of the event to register.
Tips and Tricks for Hosting Your Group Session:
- Employers tend to choose two different formats for group sessions. One format is more conversational/drop-by Q&A style, and the other format is more presentation style, with a few slides at the start and then time for a Q&A.
- Both formats are completely fine, and it comes down to what the employer is hoping to get across to students and the level of connection you wish to make with students.
- Logistically for your team, the easier option is the drop-by Q&A. However, starting with a short overview can be helpful so students can become acclimated to the chat.
- Consider having two reps host the group sessions together. We have heard feedback that when a rep hosts a group session solo, it can be challenging to talk and keep track of questions in the chat, etc. In addition, this means each rep can easily take a break!
- Most group sessions are small, with a few students joining at a time, as their schedule and conversations with other employers allow.
- Regardless of the format that your team chooses, know that students will pop in and out of your group sessions. This also means your team may answer many of the same questions (which happens in any hiring event format!).
- If your meeting tool has the option to turn off audio ‘dings’ when students enter or leave a room (like in Zoom), this would be good to do to help avoid distractions for your reps.
- If using Zoom, we recommend disabling the wait room feature once your group session starts since this can become challenging for reps to manage.
- Since group sessions do not allow for the personalized relationship building that you find with 1-on-1 chats, your reps may want to consider sharing their emails or an HR email so that students can follow up after the fair. Think of this as allowing students to follow up with a thank-you, just like an in-person hiring/networking event.
- Consider including a way for students to sign-in/resume drop (like via a survey form) since the system does not collect any group session data.
After the event:
- When the Talent Connect group event is over, you can filter students and download resumes from your RSVP list in order to screen students for interviews.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I’ve read through this FAQ and am still confused about how the event will work. Can you help?
A: Absolutely! Please email our team at [email protected], and we are happy to answer any questions.
Q: What virtual meeting platform do I need to use?
A: You can use any virtual meeting platform that your organization is comfortable with. The most common that we see are Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, and WebEx.
Q: We are hosting a group chat and want to utilize breakout rooms. Will this work with Symplicity?
A: Symplicity will allow students to RSVP and join the appropriate link to your virtual meeting platform. You are welcome to facilitate the group conversation however you wish (ex. using breakout rooms).
Q: Can I host an event on more than one day?
A: Absolutely! If you would like to recruit on multiple days, please submit separate event requests for each date.
Q: Do you have any tips for hosting group sessions?
A: Here are some best practices and suggestions that we have learned from previous fairs:
- Employers tend to choose two different formats for group sessions. One format is more conversational/drop-by Q&A style, and the other format is more presentation style, with a few slides at the start and then time for a Q&A.
- Both formats are completely fine, and it comes down to what the employer is hoping to get across to students and the level of connection you wish to make with students.
- Logistically for your team, the easier option is the drop-by Q&A. However, starting with a short overview can be helpful so students can become acclimated to the chat.
- Consider having two reps host the group sessions together. We have heard feedback that when a rep hosts a group session solo, it can be challenging to talk and keep track of questions in the chat, etc. In addition, this means each rep can easily take a break!
- Most group sessions are small, with a few students joining at a time, as their schedule and conversations with other employers allow.
- Regardless of the format that your team chooses, know that students will pop in and out of your group sessions. This also means your team may answer many of the same questions (which happens in any hiring event format!).
- If your meeting tool has the option to turn off audio ‘dings’ when students enter or leave a room (like in Zoom), this would be good to do to help avoid distractions for your reps.
- If using Zoom, we recommend disabling the wait room feature once your group session starts since this can become challenging for reps to manage.
- Since group sessions do not allow for the personalized relationship building that you find with 1-on-1 chats, your reps may want to consider sharing their emails or an HR email so that students can follow up after the fair. Think of this as allowing students to follow up with a thank-you, just like an in-person hiring/networking event.
- Consider including a way for students to sign-in/resume drop (like via a survey form) since the system does not collect any group session data.