JMU Helps Employers Find Their Entry-level Talent with Personalized Process

College students and graduates are often the backbone of entry-level hiring for an organization. Successful entry-level recruiting can be challenging based on job experience requirements, reliance on evidence-based skill demonstration, access to candidates, and failed efforts to generate interest from qualified candidates in available opportunities. The University Career Center (UCC) at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA works with hiring managers to help them develop a personalized recruiting plan for accessing JMU’s talent and finding success in their recruitment.

Developing a successful recruiting plan with a hiring manager starts with either an online recruiter orientation or an individual consultation. Emma Gibbons, JMU assistant director for internships, says, “The conversation is tailored to the needs of each employer. It’s like a brainstorming session—what issues or needs do they have and what solutions can we offer.” Based on the conversation, a plan is developed that likely includes advice on the wording in job ads, creation of a menu of options with a timeline for virtual or in-person events, and event sponsorship suggestions.

While employers’ first inclination in recruiting students might be to identify associated college majors, JMU Associate Director for Employer Relations, Laura Hickerson, says, “I advise employers to think about skills they are seeking versus the majors an employer thinks aligns with roles because there are a lot of majors and, not all schools name college majors the same way.” JMU takes a career community approach to helping students and employers to connect. JMU has ten such communities, which are loosely organized by industry and job function areas. The community categories make it easier for students and employers to name their interests. Hickerson adds, “Career communities are effective, because it can take away the pigeonholing of skills to majors.”

When it comes to building a brand on campus, “Students are drawn to companies they have heard of before. It’s important for companies to come to campus, virtually or in person, so the employer can showcase their opportunities,” Hickerson says. Sponsorships of the JMU Career and Internship Fair and becoming an employer partner with the UCC are additional ways for companies to be visible on campus. Hickerson explains, “Partners and sponsors have more digital and print signage. The more students see a company name and logo, the more it will stick in their heads and make them want to learn more about and pursue opportunities with the organization.”

JMU Recruiting Programs Coordinator Sarah Jane Christensen encourages employers to be creative in developing recruiting events. She highlights the “Take a Paws” event from last spring as an example. She worked with Hilton and therapy dog handlers in the local area to bring therapy dogs to campus for a few hours. The event drew more than 100 students, and Christensen says, “word even got out to faculty. We had one faculty member I saw deep in conversation about how the faculty member and the employer could collaborate more in the future.”

Employers who want to create a continuous pipeline of talent should ask about work-based learning opportunities (WBLEs) for their organizations. Internships are the most recognized type of work-based learning. “Establishing an internship can be a barrier for some employers who say they don’t have time to train them,” Gibbons says. Her advice for employers is to carve out the time to hire and train their first intern and then make sure that “one of the projects for the intern is to create content and training guides for subsequent interns. This makes it easier for employers to invest significant amounts of time the first time in training and hopefully less time in subsequent years.”

A lesser-known WBLE type is project-based work either incorporated into classes or as part of a micro internship. At JMU last year, there were nearly 1,300 courses offered in 67 disciplines with employers or community partners. In some instances, each student enrolled in the class had a unique partner. For some classes, one organization worked with members of an entire class. Gibbons says that “Class-based projects can help organizations complete research and solicit perspectives from multiple people at once, providing a variety of solutions to a problem in a condensed amount of time.”

This summer, the University Career Center launched a pilot program for project-based micro-internships called Madison Micros. Nineteen organizations developed projects from 20 to 80 hours in length for students to complete. Madison Micros provides ways for organizations to get discrete tasks done, while also being able to experience some of the talent at JMU. Gibbons says this is an area of great interest to students as more than 250 students applied for one or more of the Madison Micros experiences.

Career and internship fairs are the biggest recruiting events of the year. JMU hosts multiple career fairs each semester. Some fairs are hosted by individual colleges with assistance from the UCC. The Career Center hosts a two day Career and Internship Fair each semester that is traditionally attended by more than 130 organizations and around 1,700 students. All JMU students, regardless of class year or major, are encouraged to attend. According to JMU Career Center Director Libby Westley, “When employers take time to talk to first-year students, they can advise students how to best position themselves for future opportunities. Creating that relationship and recognition with students can not only help companies recruit students with whom they speak at the fair, it can also help spread the company’s recognition on campus as students talk about which companies they had a good connection at the fairs.” The fall JMU Career and Internship Fair is scheduled for Sept.29-30th, 2026.

JMU graduates seek and find opportunities in Virginia. According to information found in JMU’s First Destination’s report for the Class of 2025, 68.3% of those working from the class of 2025 accepted jobs in Virginia. The regions of the state with the most graduates are Northern Virginia (40.2%), Central Virginia, including Richmond (26.7%) and the Shenandoah Valley (20.4%). The locations with the highest number of working graduates outside Virginia include the District of Columbia, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland.

Organizations interested in finding talent at JMU and developing their personalized talent recruitment strategy should reach out to the Employer Services team at handshake@jmu.edu or explore recruiting information on the JMU Career Center’s webpage: https://www.jmu.edu/career/recruiting.