Game of cat and mouse

At this time each year companies are fighting to recruit the best university graduates.

Techniques such as direct mail to students, career fairs, campus seminars and purpose-designed websites are part of the marketing strategy.

Software development house Orion Systems International attracted graduates to its campus presentations this year with the catchy theme "Turn up the Volume on your Career" and gave away ipods to some lucky attendees.

Telecommunications company TelstraClear gave away phone cards and has a special website www.yup4challenge.co.nz (link below).

It's a game of cat and mouse, a competition among employers and graduates, with both selling their virtues.

Most students finish their final exams in October/November and many will have a job lined up soon.

Between 600 and 800 information technology graduates are vying for positions at Orion, which develops clinical software for hospitals, human resources manager Jonathan Pulman says.

Fifty to 80 of those people will get an interview and 12 will get a job, if they are good enough to meet Orions high standards.

Marketing the company on every university campus in New Zealand and sifting through the applicants takes weeks, all in the name of Orion's culture of excellence.

The high calibre of the university curriculum for IT students and New Zealanders work ethic produces great Kiwi software developers, Pulman said.

"We are in a growth phase, so we always need to recruit graduates and are looking to identify exceptional individuals," he said.

The logistics involve electronically submitted applications, then two interviews where technical and non-technical questions are posed, and a perusal of students' grades and papers and other interests.

The promise of a casual working environment and a training and mentoring programme attracted Thomas Tse, 23, to apply for a place on Orion's graduate programme last year when he finished his studies at Auckland University.

He knew it would be tough to get through, but the fact the company had gone to the trouble of marketing itself and explaining what was in it for the successful applicants enticed him.

"If they took the effort of organising a seminar, then I think they would take the effort of teaching me and training me once I started," he said.

It's the broad training offered on the graduate programme at New Zealand's largest company, Fonterra, which is satisfying for finance graduate Claire McPhail.

"You have the opportunity to do so many different types of accounting - not just management or financial.

"More than that, we get training in things like presentation techniques, which develop all-round business skills," she said.

"As well, working in different parts of the company, experiencing different office cultures and different communities, teaches you how to operate out of your comfort zone."

The dairy company graduate programme staff do four six-month stints in different parts of Fonterra, getting a feel for how the company works, and have frequent sessions with a mentor.

"It's about growing the talent in Fonterra," HR manager for graduate recruitment, Kate Dunn said.

"The successful applicants have special status because of their leadership potential.

"There is a individually tailored career path plan which obviously gives graduates an idea of the depth and breadth of Fonterra very quickly through project opportunities and things like that, which actually will fast track you into a leadership role," Dunn said.

Last year Fonterra had 434 applicants, which rose to 876 this year. Between 35-40 will be accepted after the rigorous assessment process which involves 105 people going through group exercises, cognitive tests and interviews.

How serious graduate recruitment is for TelstraClear is evident by the presence of senior executives at the university seminars.

Attracting young, intelligent talent with different life skills was crucial in the ever-changing telecoms industry, HR manager Ken Goodwin said. "We are investing in our future. Some of these people will eventually rise up through the organisation and will become leaders in the business."

This year TelstraClear has 865 applicants vying for 20 jobs. Around 50 will get final interviews after undergoing initial screening and psychometric testing.

The graduates are pampered for two years, with salaries centrally funded, real work on offer, structured training, and support and mentors in the company.

"You feel a little bit special on a graduate programme," Kristy Edwards, who began work as a planning engineer at TelstraClear in 2004, said. She wanted to get a job on a graduate programme because she believed it would be safer - having confidence the company would train her and look after her.

Edwards doesn't feel extra pressure by being tagged a future leader.

"It's almost an honour, it's a good thing."