The Puzzle: Blog

Unless you've been to one of our national or regional hiring conferences, it can be tough to fully understand how they work. We break down the ins and outs of a conference experience for schools and hiring contacts who don't know what to expect or aren't sure how they can be a huge asset when it comes to recruiting and hiring faculty and staff.

Understanding the Hiring Format…

An important distinction of our events is that they are primarily a day (or in some cases, two days) of pre-scheduled interviews. This is also the expectation set with candidates in advance of attending. While there will be significant “networking” in the sense that your school has the opportunity to meet with many candidates over the course of the event, candidates are not encouraged to go from table-to-table if they do not have an interview scheduled with you.

…as well as the Conference Space

School interviewing tables are located in a large ballroom. Each school has a table number, which is how candidates find your particular school at the time of the interview.

In terms of “dressing up” your school table, some schools choose to bring along a tablecloth with their logo, a few marketing materials, or a handful of swag items — but not every school, so don't feel like this is a requirement. Because the conference is not structured like a career fair where attendees visit table to table, the appearance of your table does not need to be an area of great concern. (Getting into the Conference Module and scheduling interviews early, on the other hand, should be!)

Exploring the Conference Module

Two weeks prior to each conference, school attendees will receive login information for the Conference Module, a site separate from ORM that is specific to each event. From here, you can manage your schedule for the day. The site includes the full profiles of all candidates attending the event so you can add them to your schedule.

While you definitely want to familiarize yourself with the site, do not hesitate to lean on our team to help ensure you meet the best candidates for your available openings. We can even build your schedule for you if you prefer!

Viewing Messages & Attempted Interviews

Candidates who are interested in your school will often send messages through the Module. Make sure to keep an eye on this section of the site. Because candidates cannot request to interview with you, we encourage this messaging feature for those eager beavers who want to indicate their interest in your school.

There may be some candidates whose open time slots do not match up with yours. You can still reach out to those candidates and set up a time to interview post-conference. This is shown in the “Attempted Interviews” tab in the Module.

Asking for Help…Sooner Rather Than Later!

Don’t be afraid to let our team assist with your schedule. On the right rail of the Module homepage, there is a button that reads “Request CS&A to book my interviews.” Just tell us the positions you’re hiring for and we do the rest. Make sure to edit your schedule to include breaks or any time you will not be in the interview space prior to making a request.

The sooner you can do this, the better experience you will have. Candidate schedules can fill up quickly!

Having a Game Plan with Your Team

Are you bringing colleagues with you? Discuss how you will manage your respective schedules throughout the day. Are there certain candidates you want to interview together? Often, multiple representatives from a school (at the same table) interview two different candidates to maximize the amount of people they can talk to.

For any other questions about conferences, give our office a call or reach out to someone on our team — we're here to help ensure you have the best conference experience.

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