Poll results: When do students look for entry level jobs?

TalentEgg has long suspected that there is a discrepancy between when students look for entry-level jobs and when employers are recruiting and hiring for the majority of their entry-level jobs, however the results of our latest poll confirm it. We asked students and recent graduates:

When did you or will you start searching for your first post-grad job?

Traditional campus recruitment strategy implies that employers must begin recruiting on campus in September to hire the best entry-level talent, but only 1 in 5 students looks for entry-level jobs in September of their final year!

The majority of graduating students are either searching for jobs throughout the year (24%), or don’t even begin looking for entry-level jobs until classes are finished in April (37%).

About 14% of students start their job hunts in January of their final year and only 5% are looking at some other point.

Unemployed and underemployed students and recent grads frequently lament the fact that they’ve completely missed out on employers’ key hiring period simply because they either weren’t aware of it or were too busy with school, extra-curricular activities, internships, co-op terms and part-time jobs to participate.

We wonder if employers who execute the bulk of their recruitment efforts in September are also missing out on 81% of the best entry-level talent?