At Parker Dewey, we hear daily from companies and universities about the different challenges they each face tied to campus recruiting. While each side is unique, we've seen that both parties have the same end goal, but often struggle to find collaborative ways to improve outcomes for the companies and students alike. So we invited university and recruiting leaders to get candid and share the ways they are overcoming challenges of campus to career transitions.

Parker Dewey (www.ParkerDewey.com), an organization that improves college-to-career transitions through its innovative Micro-Internship platform, has been named as a winner of the 17th Annual Chicago Innovation Awards.

The traditional job interview process is continuously failing employers and future employees. It is not sufficient to determine if a candidate has the core skills needed for a position and candidates are not able to assess personal fit at the company. The interview is simply not enough, which is why Marcel Schwantes, explains how companies are adopting the job audition model in his article: The Job Interview Will Soon Be Dead. Here's What the Top Companies Are Replacing It With.

HR leaders are under massive pressure to fill open roles, enhance diversity, and retain talent. Unfortunately, with unemployment near record lows the challenges of doing so are intense. While companies compete for the same candidates who possess the “right” academic pedigree, major, and GPA, all professionals remain frustrated with increasing workloads.

When I saw this post from George Anders, I cheered. By viewing gigs as a pathway, the value to college students goes beyond the money as it lets them demonstrate skills, explore career paths, and build their networks while they seek the right full-time role upon graduation. For companies, the value also goes beyond the work as they can identify and assess talent in a more authentic way, thereby driving enhanced diversity, improved hiring effectiveness, and better retention.

This post was written by Sarah Landes.

How do you use Micro-Interns? We asked, real professionals answered.

Two-thirds of underemployed college graduates will remain underemployed throughout their careers, according to The Permanent Detour: Underemployment’s Long-term Effects on the Careers of College Graduates, a new report from Strada Institute for the Future of Work and Burning Glass Technologies. While scary, the illumination of this risk shows that underemployment can be preventable.

Last week I attended the 2018 NACE Conference and was inspired by all of the conversations around improving career success for college students and recent grads. However, even with all of the innovation and desire to improve college-to-career outcomes, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 55.3% of recent college graduates will leave their first job within the first year.

Parker Dewey is honored to partner with the United Negro College Fund to support its Career Pathways Initiative. Through this effort, diverse college students have more opportunities to execute short-term, paid, professional assignments to help them launch their careers. In addition, these Micro-Internships allow companies to build relationships with highly motivated Career Launchers and see firsthand the benefits of hiring students from HBCUs.