Virtual Campus Recruiting Strategy - Tips & Ideas for Campus Hiring

On-campus recruiting has been decreasing in popularity over the years. Running up high travel costs and being time-intensive is less than ideal in today’s fast-paced tech industry. The pandemic proved to be the nail in the coffin for this old-school way of university recruitment.

Universities and other educational institutions across the world canceled in-person career fairs and on-campus recruitment drives. Companies needed to think on their feet to organize their summer internships as well as figure out ways to fill their candidate pipeline. This led to a forced transition to virtual campus recruiting—which turned out to be a good thing so far!

2022 holds the promise of a new start for the modern recruiter. Virtual campus recruiting doesn’t demand a huge budget, eliminates geographical constraints which widen your talent pool, and provides an improved candidate experience to today’s digital-savvy generation—it is a win-win all around.

Let’s talk about virtual campus recruiting strategy, making the shift to a remote hiring model, and speaking the language of Gen Z. The latter of which make up a majority of your target audience in this article.

Creating a virtual campus recruiting strategy: The steps

Traditional campus recruiting only happens once a year. Now that you do not have to wait until universities reopen to initiate your hiring discussions, virtual campus recruiting can be an ongoing strategy: you can nurture your potential candidates throughout the school year.

As the first company to reach out, you’ll have the advantage of students’ full attention. Here’s what you can do to build an effective virtual campus recruiting strategy:

1. Build a robust hiring plan

Before going all-out with your virtual recruiting ideas and strategies, you need to assess the skill gap within your company—then go on to hiring for those particular roles. List down your hiring needs by taking inputs from team leaders of various departments.

Ask them questions like:

What departments need new talent?
What skills are the current roles lacking?
What level of expertise do you need from your candidates?
How do you plan to build/strengthen your employer brand among student groups?

Based on the answers, your recruiting budget, and ROI targets, chalk out your virtual campus recruiting strategy to meet all your goals.

2. Add more universities to your hiring pool

Now that you have a solid plan in place, the next step is to have a clearly defined set of requirements—to help decide on the universities to target.

The identified list of schools could be based on the job openings, budgets, and diversity policies. Gen Z expects workplaces to be inclusive and as they make up a majority of the targeted workforce of tomorrow, it’s best if your company gets started on its D&I journey soon—not that you need a reason to be naturally inclusive and empathetic.

The more schools, and the more types of schools you can include in your campus recruitment efforts, the more vast and diverse your pipeline will be. Virtual campus recruiting makes it easy to expand your horizons. Take location out of the picture as you don’t have to physically go to these schools, and then build out talent profiles for specific roles that don’t conform to the usual handful of schools. There’s top talent in all of these places.

3. Leverage social media to source candidates

Today’s college grads get everything done on their phones. They rely heavily on digital means to get them through the day. Your recruiting strategy for students being virtual is a blessing in disguise! This is how you stand out from the crowd—by leveraging social media for your recruiting efforts.

Splash your job postings on relevant social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram in a creative way that grabs eyeballs. Talk about your brand, what a day at work looks like, what current employees think about your company, showcase your culture, share snappy/fun stories—humanize your company by being authentic.

If you need to build connections with universities that you’re freshly collaborating with but do not have the budget, here’s what you can do. Use Google to search for Dean’s Lists, engineering honors programs, and so on. Search for student awards, competition wins, and membership lists for student organizations. You can get all the relevant student information if you know your way around Boolean search—if you don’t, this article will help you immensely!

4. Show interest in students throughout their time at university

Since your entire campus recruitment is going to be remote, there’s no time like the present to connect with students and keep in touch throughout the year. Supporting a continuous exchange of ideas, opportunities, and information all through their time at the university helps to keep your brand at the forefront when it’s time to begin the actual hiring process.

Here are some innovative college recruiting strategies to nurture students:

Share compelling content about the day-to-day goings on at the workplace to keep your company top of mind. Invite students to read blog posts by, and watch videos of, your employees. Allow them to check you out on social media (which you should’ve been updating regularly). To strengthen your brand, share information about the company via webinars or seminars – the nature of work, new patents, cutting-edge research, and career paths. Include QR codes on event materials or flyers to guide students directly to these resources

Spruce up your careers site and encourage students to sign up for your talent community. Shine the spotlight on your company’s work culture, goals, benefits, and rewards. The visual content could include images, employee videos, or graphics to create a story.

Use customized recruitment campaigns that can answer questions like, What steps are being taken for the mental well-being of employees? What do your employees have to say about the culture—both pre-COVID and now? Segment and target talent by major, university, geography, diversity, and more for better results.

Run workshops and mentorships to help soon-to-be graduates, not just for your targeted students, but for all of them. This helps you keep your finger on the pulse and learn what students are interested in while increasing visibility and trust in your brand.

Offer internship opportunities so students can experience for themselves what it would be like working for your company. Bake in project support and incubation programs as part of their learning process.

5. Diversify your engagement strategy

Conducting one webinar to drive engagement and dusting your hands off would’ve worked in a traditional setting but not anymore. It’s important to plan and host several virtual events throughout the year if you want to keep the students engaged. These are a few virtual recruiting event ideas that are a good place to start:

Hackathons are a great way to connect with students and build relationships with them. They drive engagement and attract top talent. You, as recruiters, can even assess potential candidates’ culture fit as they work with your team during a hackathon.

With tools like HackerEarth, you can not only find qualified developers with hiring challenges but can also engage our 6.5 million strong developer community by hosting hackathons.

Virtual career fairs let you connect with students, collate information, host interviews, and assessments—much like on-campus career fairs. You can design your virtual fairs so they have employer booths that attendees can visit, auditoriums for webinars, and chat rooms where they can network with recruiters, hiring managers, and other company reps to find out about open jobs and the benefits of working for your company

Virtual information sessions like AMAs (Ask Me Anything) with your company’s leadership team, QnAs through chat, employee panels to promote various aspects of your company, and the tried and tested webinars, all serve to pique and hold the interest of your potential candidates, i.e. students. Students look forward to personal interaction with employers and have their doubts cleared, so build in time and capability to field questions.

6. Identify the most efficient tools to assess future candidates

Skills assessment is the first step to screening potential candidates in online campus recruitment. To handle large volumes of student applications, you need to arm yourself with a good coding assessment tool—that helps you identify the students’ potential by conducting assessments for diverse roles as well as objectively evaluating students based on their skills.

This is where we, at HackerEarth step in! Our coding assessment platform generates a leaderboard after every assessment, allowing recruiters and hiring managers to screen the very best developers with ease. You can upload a job description and create a coding assessment from a library of 13,000+ questions across 80+ skills, within minutes.

Coding interviews mark the culmination of your online campus recruitment. An efficient coding interview tool would have an in-built code editor, video chat, offers pair programming, and automates interview summaries. Pair programming interviews can help employers expedite technical skills assessment by assessing candidates based on real-time programming skills.

Our intelligent online coding interview platform, FaceCode comes with a state-of-the-art collaborative code editor, a built-in question library, HD video chat, a diagram board and so much more. It is completely developer-friendly. Click here to experience it first hand.

7. Measure your goals to see if your efforts are paying off

You need to dive deep into analytics from your virtual campus recruiting strategy to figure out what is working and what isn’t. Other than the basic number of attendees metric, there are other factors to take into account before declaring your recruitment drive a success. Here are some things to measure:

Event attendance numbers
Students who RSVP’d but didn’t attend
Do these students engage after the event by responding to follow-up messages and submitting applications?
Open, click-through, and interested response rates to your emails
The number of resumes collected and live chat interactions initiated
The number of qualified candidates per event and college
The number of hires you made on each campus
What interview to offer ratio do you get
How many offers to acceptances do you get
Retention rates of new hires

How can creating an online campus recruitment strategy help your organization?

Virtual campus recruiting allows organizations to access a wide range of talent from various geographical locations and backgrounds, fostering a more diverse workforce.
Online recruitment reduces travel and accommodation costs associated with traditional campus hiring, making it a more cost-effective strategy.
With the increasing prevalence of remote working, especially in tech and digital sectors, virtual recruitment aligns well with the current work trends and expectations of new graduates.
Digital tools and platforms used in online recruitment enable more efficient screening and selection processes, allowing for quicker and more effective candidate assessment.

Moreover, engaging with students through virtual platforms can enhance an organization’s brand as a forward-thinking and technologically adept employer.

Now that you have a strategy in place, it’s time to get the internal team on board. Here’s how:

Leverage technology: Invest in reliable virtual recruitment platforms and tools for seamless interaction, interviews, assessments, and presentations.
Develop engaging tech-first content: Create compelling and informative content about your organization, including virtual tours, employee testimonials, and interactive Q&A sessions.
Train recruiters and representatives: Ensure your team is comfortable with the technology and trained in online communication etiquette and engagement strategies.
Build relationships with top universities: Partner with universities and career centers to integrate into their virtual career fairs and recruitment programs.
Customize your approach: Tailor your recruitment strategy to each campus, considering the specific talent pool and academic specializations available.

While you align your internal tech hiring team with this new process, do not forget to take stock of the challenges and plan ahead for them. Some of the problems tech recruiters face commonly face when hiring online include:

Connectivity problems or software glitches which can disrupt virtual interviews and presentations, impacting the recruitment experience.
Creating a personal connection and engaging candidates effectively in a
Assessing cultural fit through virtual means compared to face-to-face interactions.
Competition for mind space. This where employer branding can improve your chances of attracting the best candidates.
Adapting traditional recruitment materials for digital platforms.

Shake up your virtual campus recruiting strategy!

Recruitment strategies for universities do not have to be only career fairs and company presentations. You can play around and add a little spice to your virtual campus recruiting strategy as seen in this article—Gen Z appreciates out-of-the-box efforts to catch their attention.

Be it organizing hackathons to garner engagement, throwing out dress codes to make interviews seem less intimidating, or curating custom campus recruitment strategies, keep experimenting until you find something that works for you. We hope the virtual campus recruiting tips in this article will help you step up your campus recruitment game.

Campus recruiting takes time but it’s worth the wait, don’t you think?

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Hackathons

Vibe Coding: Shaping the Future of Software

A New Era of CodeVibe coding is a new method of using natural language prompts and AI tools to generate code. I have seen firsthand that this change makes software more accessible to everyone. In the past, being able to produce functional code was a strong advantage for developers. Today,...

A New Era of Code

Vibe coding is a new method of using natural language prompts and AI tools to generate code. I have seen firsthand that this change makes software more accessible to everyone. In the past, being able to produce functional code was a strong advantage for developers. Today, when code is produced quickly through AI, the true value lies in designing, refining, and optimizing systems. Our role now goes beyond writing code; we must also ensure that our systems remain efficient and reliable.

From Machine Language to Natural Language

I recall the early days when every line of code was written manually. We progressed from machine language to high-level programming, and now we are beginning to interact with our tools using natural language. This development does not only increase speed but also changes how we approach problem solving. Product managers can now create working demos in hours instead of weeks, and founders have a clearer way of pitching their ideas with functional prototypes. It is important for us to rethink our role as developers and focus on architecture and system design rather than simply on typing c

The Promise and the Pitfalls

I have experienced both sides of vibe coding. In cases where the goal was to build a quick prototype or a simple internal tool, AI-generated code provided impressive results. Teams have been able to test new ideas and validate concepts much faster. However, when it comes to more complex systems that require careful planning and attention to detail, the output from AI can be problematic. I have seen situations where AI produces large volumes of code that become difficult to manage without significant human intervention.

AI-powered coding tools like GitHub Copilot and AWS’s Q Developer have demonstrated significant productivity gains. For instance, at the National Australia Bank, it’s reported that half of the production code is generated by Q Developer, allowing developers to focus on higher-level problem-solving . Similarly, platforms like Lovable enable non-coders to build viable tech businesses using natural language prompts, contributing to a shift where AI-generated code reduces the need for large engineering teams. However, there are challenges. AI-generated code can sometimes be verbose or lack the architectural discipline required for complex systems. While AI can rapidly produce prototypes or simple utilities, building large-scale systems still necessitates experienced engineers to refine and optimize the code.

The Economic Impact

The democratization of code generation is altering the economic landscape of software development. As AI tools become more prevalent, the value of average coding skills may diminish, potentially affecting salaries for entry-level positions. Conversely, developers who excel in system design, architecture, and optimization are likely to see increased demand and compensation.
Seizing the Opportunity

Vibe coding is most beneficial in areas such as rapid prototyping and building simple applications or internal tools. It frees up valuable time that we can then invest in higher-level tasks such as system architecture, security, and user experience. When used in the right context, AI becomes a helpful partner that accelerates the development process without replacing the need for skilled engineers.

This is revolutionizing our craft, much like the shift from machine language to assembly to high-level languages did in the past. AI can churn out code at lightning speed, but remember, “Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.” Use AI for rapid prototyping, but it’s your expertise that transforms raw output into robust, scalable software. By honing our skills in design and architecture, we ensure our work remains impactful and enduring. Let’s continue to learn, adapt, and build software that stands the test of time.

Ready to streamline your recruitment process? Get a free demo to explore cutting-edge solutions and resources for your hiring needs.

Tech Assessment

Guide to Conducting Successful System Design Interviews in 2025

What is Systems Design?Systems Design is an all encompassing term which encapsulates both frontend and backend components harmonized to define the overall architecture of a product.Designing robust and scalable systems requires a deep understanding of application, architecture and their underlying components like networks, data, interfaces and modules.Systems Design, in its...

What is Systems Design?

Systems Design is an all encompassing term which encapsulates both frontend and backend components harmonized to define the overall architecture of a product.

Designing robust and scalable systems requires a deep understanding of application, architecture and their underlying components like networks, data, interfaces and modules.

Systems Design, in its essence, is a blueprint of how software and applications should work to meet specific goals. The multi-dimensional nature of this discipline makes it open-ended – as there is no single one-size-fits-all solution to a system design problem.

What is a System Design Interview?

Conducting a System Design interview requires recruiters to take an unconventional approach and look beyond right or wrong answers. Recruiters should aim for evaluating a candidate’s ‘systemic thinking’ skills across three key aspects:

How they navigate technical complexity and navigate uncertainty
How they meet expectations of scale, security and speed
How they focus on the bigger picture without losing sight of details

This assessment of the end-to-end thought process and a holistic approach to problem-solving is what the interview should focus on.

What are some common topics for a System Design Interview

System design interview questions are free-form and exploratory in nature where there is no right or best answer to a specific problem statement. Here are some common questions:

How would you approach the design of a social media app or video app?

What are some ways to design a search engine or a ticketing system?

How would you design an API for a payment gateway?

What are some trade-offs and constraints you will consider while designing systems?

What is your rationale for taking a particular approach to problem solving?

Usually, interviewers base the questions depending on the organization, its goals, key competitors and a candidate’s experience level.

For senior roles, the questions tend to focus on assessing the computational thinking, decision making and reasoning ability of a candidate. For entry level job interviews, the questions are designed to test the hard skills required for building a system architecture.

The Difference between a System Design Interview and a Coding Interview

If a coding interview is like a map that takes you from point A to Z – a systems design interview is like a compass which gives you a sense of the right direction.

Here are three key difference between the two:

Coding challenges follow a linear interviewing experience i.e. candidates are given a problem and interaction with recruiters is limited. System design interviews are more lateral and conversational, requiring active participation from interviewers.

Coding interviews or challenges focus on evaluating the technical acumen of a candidate whereas systems design interviews are oriented to assess problem solving and interpersonal skills.

Coding interviews are based on a right/wrong approach with ideal answers to problem statements while a systems design interview focuses on assessing the thought process and the ability to reason from first principles.

How to Conduct an Effective System Design Interview

One common mistake recruiters make is that they approach a system design interview with the expectations and preparation of a typical coding interview.
Here is a four step framework technical recruiters can follow to ensure a seamless and productive interview experience:

Step 1: Understand the subject at hand

Develop an understanding of basics of system design and architecture
Familiarize yourself with commonly asked systems design interview questions
Read about system design case studies for popular applications
Structure the questions and problems by increasing magnitude of difficulty

Step 2: Prepare for the interview

Plan the extent of the topics and scope of discussion in advance
Clearly define the evaluation criteria and communicate expectations
Quantify constraints, inputs, boundaries and assumptions
Establish the broader context and a detailed scope of the exercise

Step 3: Stay actively involved

Ask follow-up questions to challenge a solution
Probe candidates to gauge real-time logical reasoning skills
Make it a conversation and take notes of important pointers and outcomes
Guide candidates with hints and suggestions to steer them in the right direction

Step 4: Be a collaborator

Encourage candidates to explore and consider alternative solutions
Work with the candidate to drill the problem into smaller tasks
Provide context and supporting details to help candidates stay on track
Ask follow-up questions to learn about the candidate’s experience

Technical recruiters and hiring managers should aim for providing an environment of positive reinforcement, actionable feedback and encouragement to candidates.

Evaluation Rubric for Candidates

Facilitate Successful System Design Interview Experiences with FaceCode

FaceCode, HackerEarth’s intuitive and secure platform, empowers recruiters to conduct system design interviews in a live coding environment with HD video chat.

FaceCode comes with an interactive diagram board which makes it easier for interviewers to assess the design thinking skills and conduct communication assessments using a built-in library of diagram based questions.

With FaceCode, you can combine your feedback points with AI-powered insights to generate accurate, data-driven assessment reports in a breeze. Plus, you can access interview recordings and transcripts anytime to recall and trace back the interview experience.

Learn how FaceCode can help you conduct system design interviews and boost your hiring efficiency.

AI Recruiting

How Candidates Use Technology to Cheat in Online Technical Assessments

Impact of Online Assessments in Technical Hiring In a digitally-native hiring landscape, online assessments have proven to be both a boon and a bane for recruiters and employers. The ease and...

Impact of Online Assessments in Technical Hiring

In a digitally-native hiring landscape, online assessments have proven to be both a boon and a bane for recruiters and employers.

The ease and efficiency of virtual interviews, take home programming tests and remote coding challenges is transformative. Around 82% of companies use pre-employment assessments as reliable indicators of a candidate's skills and potential.

Online skill assessment tests have been proven to streamline technical hiring and enable recruiters to significantly reduce the time and cost to identify and hire top talent.

In the realm of online assessments, remote assessments have transformed the hiring landscape, boosting the speed and efficiency of screening and evaluating talent. On the flip side, candidates have learned how to use creative methods and AI tools to cheat in tests.

As it turns out, technology that makes hiring easier for recruiters and managers - is also their Achilles' heel.

Cheating in Online Assessments is a High Stakes Problem

With the proliferation of AI in recruitment, the conversation around cheating has come to the forefront, putting recruiters and hiring managers in a bit of a flux.

According to research, nearly 30 to 50 percent of candidates cheat in online assessments for entry level jobs. Even 10% of senior candidates have been reportedly caught cheating.

The problem becomes twofold - if finding the right talent can be a competitive advantage, the consequences of hiring the wrong one can be equally damaging and counter-productive.

As per Forbes, a wrong hire can cost a company around 30% of an employee's salary - not to mention, loss of precious productive hours and morale disruption.

The question that arises is - "Can organizations continue to leverage AI-driven tools for online assessments without compromising on the integrity of their hiring process? "

This article will discuss the common methods candidates use to outsmart online assessments. We will also dive deep into actionable steps that you can take to prevent cheating while delivering a positive candidate experience.

Common Cheating Tactics and How You Can Combat Them

Using ChatGPT and other AI tools to write code
Copy-pasting code using AI-based platforms and online code generators is one of common cheat codes in candidates' books. For tackling technical assessments, candidates conveniently use readily available tools like ChatGPT and GitHub. Using these tools, candidates can easily generate solutions to solve common programming challenges such as:
- Debugging code
- Optimizing existing code
- Writing problem-specific code from scratch
Ways to prevent it
- Enable full-screen mode
- Disable copy-and-paste functionality
- Restrict tab switching outside of code editors
- Use AI to detect code that has been copied and pasted
Enlist external help to complete the assessment

Candidates often seek out someone else to take the assessment on their behalf. In many cases, they also use screen sharing and remote collaboration tools for real-time assistance.

In extreme cases, some candidates might have an off-camera individual present in the same environment for help.

Ways to prevent it
- Verify a candidate using video authentication
- Restrict test access from specific IP addresses
- Use online proctoring by taking snapshots of the candidate periodically
- Use a 360 degree environment scan to ensure no unauthorized individual is present
Using multiple devices at the same time

Candidates attempting to cheat often rely on secondary devices such as a computer, tablet, notebook or a mobile phone hidden from the line of sight of their webcam.

By using multiple devices, candidates can look up information, search for solutions or simply augment their answers.

Ways to prevent it
- Track mouse exit count to detect irregularities
- Detect when a new device or peripheral is connected
- Use network monitoring and scanning to detect any smart devices in proximity
- Conduct a virtual whiteboard interview to monitor movements and gestures
Using remote desktop software and virtual machines

Tech-savvy candidates go to great lengths to cheat. Using virtual machines, candidates can search for answers using a secondary OS while their primary OS is being monitored.

Remote desktop software is another cheating technique which lets candidates give access to a third-person, allowing them to control their device.

With remote desktops, candidates can screen share the test window and use external help.

Ways to prevent it
- Restrict access to virtual machines
- AI-based proctoring for identifying malicious keystrokes
- Use smart browsers to block candidates from using VMs

Future-proof Your Online Assessments With HackerEarth

HackerEarth's AI-powered online proctoring solution is a tested and proven way to outsmart cheating and take preventive measures at the right stage. With HackerEarth's Smart Browser, recruiters can mitigate the threat of cheating and ensure their online assessments are accurate and trustworthy.

Secure, sealed-off testing environment
AI-enabled live test monitoring
Enterprise-grade, industry leading compliance
Built-in features to track, detect and flag cheating attempts

Boost your hiring efficiency and conduct reliable online assessments confidently with HackerEarth's revolutionary Smart Browser.

Create The Perfect Virtual Recruiting Strategy For Universities With These Tips