If you’ve never participated in the career fair at the National Collegiate Landscape Competition, presented by NALP and powered by STIHL, you may be overwhelmed by where to start and how to optimize your time with students.
Industry professionals who have been attending for years share their advice on recruiting during the career fair.
Attracting Students To Your Booth
During the career fair, you will have the opportunity to interact with hundreds of students who may have never heard of your brand before, so it’s important to make a good first impression.
Jennifer Burnett, chief people officer for LandCare, based in Frederick, Maryland, says they will walk the booth space in advance to see how it feels and make sure they can have a number of conversations going on at once and can guide students over to specific areas of the booth based on their interests.
“One thing I make sure we do is we do not sit down, and we don’t stand behind tables,” Burnett says. “I think it’s very traditional to have the table set up and to have that barrier because it feels comfortable to talk across the table with someone. We don’t. We make sure it’s a completely open space.”
Jeff Rossen, CEO of Rossen Landscape, based in Great Falls, Virginia, agrees your booth needs to be welcoming and inviting. Don’t just settle for a table with a brochure and some business cards. He says students want to see pictures of your work and the cool swag you’re giving away.
“Look at what the other successful companies are doing,” Rossen says. “You got to compete. Lastly, I’ve found the ones that have some sort of little activity like a cornhole toss or darts, when there’s a challenge and a giveaway that seems to attract the kids too.”
Brigitte Orrick, director of recruiting and employee development for Davey Tree Expert Company, based in Kent, Ohio, adds you want to have friendly faces in the booth, but not an overwhelming number of company reps.
“You want to have a process for which you’re going to interact with the students,” Orrick says. “You want to answer their questions. You want to tell them just enough information about your company and your job opportunities to be able to capture their information.”
Have a sign-up sheet or QR code where you can record the students’ contact information.
“If they’re coming up to us in March, and they don’t have an internship lined up already, there’s a huge opportunity there because there’s only a couple months of the school year,” Burnett says. “We make sure to follow up the week immediately after the career fair with anyone who’s filled out that interest form and see if we can pull them in for an internship.”
Bill Petry, a sales consultant for Milosi, based in Hendersonville, Tennessee, notes that their relationships with faculty throughout the year and students over the years also drives new leads to their booth.
“They’ve at least seen our logo or seen one of us somewhere for something,” Petry says. “Students talk, especially ones from past years, like, ‘You guys need to go check out Milosi.’”
What Resonates With Students
When talking to students in your booth, Rossen says you need to sell yourself. Burnett says it resonates with students that LandCare is a people-centric organization and they grow their business through relationships.
“We provide formal support, by way of management training to team members that are just starting their career,” Burnett says. “We hear time and again, ‘Oh okay, yeah, this sounds a lot less scary to start my first job when I understand there’s going to be a whole year of training designed specifically for my profile’ for someone coming directly out of college.”
Petry says students also want to know if your company has more of a residential or commercial focus. They want to know how big your company is and they want to talk about the culture.
“They rarely ever really want to know about what their day-to-day is going to be like until you get into the second interview,” Petry says. “They want to know more about who we are, what we do, and why we do it.”
Jaden Miller, marketing manager for Weller Brothers Landscape Professionals, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, says their many career options, three different locations and their comprehensive internship program with housing availability pique students’ interest.
“They’re also looking for companies that can differentiate themselves by offering additional professional development certifications and credentials as part of their regular employee training,” Orrick says.
Attracting Students To Your Company
One of the keys to being a good fit for many students at NCLC is to offer an internship program.
“Most of the students that come to NCLC are looking for internship opportunities at your company,” Orrick says. “They’re looking to explore your career paths and what you have to offer as an employer.”
Petry says it is critical to have a strong internship program first, as students want to leave feeling they accomplished something during their time with your company.
“We’re trying to build our bench,” Petry says. “An internship is nothing more than an extended interview. So they learn us, we learn them, and figure out how this is going to work. If they work well, if they like it here, if they’re a good fit, then it just works.”
Miller says having housing available for interns is also important.
“We coordinate with a local college campus for this,” Miller says. “Before that, many interested students turned us down for internships because the short-term housing piece was difficult. Since removing that barrier, we’ve been much more successful in hiring interns.”
One of the concerns you may have is if students are willing to relocate. Petry says they’ve brought in interns from BYU-Provo, BYU-Idaho, Mississippi State, Arizona State, and UMass.
“One of the first things they ask at the career fair when you meet them is ‘Where are y’all located?’” Petry says. “We’ll say Nashville and their eyes just light up. A lot of people want to be in Nashville.”
Miller says they’re intentional about recruiting students who are semi-local as a student moving to South Dakota from Kansas is less daunting for them.
LandCare and Davey take advantage of their national branches and can offer students a variety of locations to work at.
“One of the differentiators of LandCare is that we have businesses all around the country,” Burnett says. “So we have a lot of flexibility in placing students where they want to go.”
Orrick says there are some students who are more likely to relocate out of state as they navigate their careers.
“I think there is a great opportunity to expose students to all the potential opportunities within the industry,” Burnett says. “If the companies aren’t there, they don’t know. There are students looking for opportunities in all different places.”
Booth space is limited! Secure your space at NCLC at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, on March 19-22, 2025. Registration for the Career Fair opens in late fall.
