The Talimer team frequently sees job descriptions requiring “3-5 years of experience” on fairly junior roles. However, this practice denies consideration of ambitious, talented recent grads, resulting in big missed opportunities for employers. Entry-level professionals offer unique benefits to teams and organizations compared to more experienced candidates, including a lower price tag. For an entry-level salary or competitive hourly rate, companies can acquire staff with fresh perspectives, high energy, up-to-date software skills and a natural technology acumen who come in a malleable, coachable package.
1) They know all the things
The phrase “fresh out of college” evokes images of eager, young professionals, phones in hand, tablets and laptops in backpacks who just emerged from 2-6 years immersed in academic and cultural study. That includes following or sometimes even setting trends (we’re looking at you My Boo TikTok dance challenge). These grads naturally generate relevant and culturally sensitive ideas. They fearlessly innovate and innately understand the value of entrepreneurship and disruption, having grown up with seasons of Shark Tank and reality competition shows where care of craft and the ability to deliver under pressure reaps fame, glory and cash. Adding that energy to your team builds capacity to identify “old school” practices and propel ideation for improvement.
2) Fire up the team
Harness the joy, excitement and optimism entry-level professionals bring to their first job. Support their enthusiasm and desire to make a positive impression and build a good reputation. Let them set the bar with the tireless work ethic they cultivated at school. Find ways to encourage the team to match that motivation, get more engaged and step up their game. Let that unbridaled buoyancy lift the whole team.
3) Customize that OS
Call it a clean slate, a blank page or a modifiable operating system, new grads aren’t pre-programmed with bad habits or infected with the “that’s how we’ve always done it” virus. Invite their feedback as you train them in your organization’s best practices, solicit their perspective on processes, protocols and projects. Let their perspectives illuminate opportunities to fine tune (or completely overhaul) internal operations to maximize efficiency, inclusion and equity. Help them shape their professional habits by modeling, mentoring and coaching to optimize productivity for all.
4) Educated on the latest and up for what’s next
Crazy new technology, development frameworks, productivity apps, cloud services, hardware and industry-disrupting startups bombard us daily. Who can keep up with all that? Recent graduates! These digital natives embrace what’s new and what’s next, gleefully testing, critiquing and adopting the latest, fastest, most novel new thing. They’ve consistently conquered the latest tech, applying it in classwork and internships, while coaching older and younger family members. Assimilating new tech is second nature and that competence and confidence can move the organization to iterate and innovate with speed and agility.
5) Great return on investment
You can’t teach the kind of newly-minted professional zeal a recent grad brings to the job but you can tap into it! Most salaries, even for in-demand roles, are far more competitive for entry-level hires, who, as we enumerated above, bring a ton of value. While this generation of grads won’t stay forever, they’ll push themselves to learn and grow so they can proudly deliver results. Loyalty and making an impact matter to these professionals. Support their career development while empowering them to accelerate growth in your organization.
It may seem safer to hire the candidate with 3-5 years of experience, however, no one gets anywhere without taking risks. You may argue that it is better to hire someone with years of traditional work experience, but have you considered the education and internship experience of recent graduates? With knowledge of the most up-to-date technology, recent graduates should not be overlooked. They will also help your organization stay up-to-speed with the latest cultural trends, critical for any company to maintain their relevance and competitive edge. Consider the benefits a recent graduate can bring to your company and hire one (or several!) today.
ABOUT TALIMER
Talimer is blowing up what’s wrong with the “gig economy.” By putting freelancers first in a unique marketplace, we’re growing and empowering a diverse community of tech professionals to feel fulfilled, confident and secure in their lives. We’re doing this by providing them access to jobs, benefits and more while making it easier for businesses to secure these highly skilled, hard-to-find, on-demand freelancers. To learn more about Talimer please visit www.talimer.com. To see Talimer’s available job opportunities, please visit www.talimer.com/job-opportunities.
