Community College Recruitment Strategies for Your Dealership

Recruiting people to staff entry-level positions at your dealership can be a challenge. Rather than posting a “help wanted” ad and hoping that qualified candidates come to you, there are a few ways to be proactive about filling such roles. Seeking out talent at community colleges is among them. Nearly four out of every 10 undergrads in the U.S. attend a community college, and many of those people are young, local and eager for part-time work or internships. Here’s how to reach them.

Participate in Career Days

Connect with institutions in your area to see if your dealership could participate in a career day or job fair. This is a hands-on way to meet a lot of prospective employees quickly and in person. Make sure to send outgoing representatives of your brand, meaning, select people who are comfortable flagging down students and promoting the advantages of starting their careers with you. Perhaps consider an employee who was an entry-level hire and has been promoted or is especially successful in their role.

Post on Job Boards

Ask local colleges if they have job boards where you can list your openings. If the school caters its job boards to students based on what they’re studying, post the position on all appropriate pages. A business school or communications board is a great place to find potential hires for the Sales team. Or if you’re in need of someone to help in the dealership’s F&I office, target accounting majors.

Seek Applicants Through Student Recruitment Sites

Consider listing your open roles on a site like Handshake, which has partnered with college career centers to connect students across the country with in-need employers. This is a particularly good option if your dealership is willing to use a remote employee for something like IT help, as tech-oriented positions tend to receive the most applications via Handshake. The F&I department may also have luck finding candidates through this site, as financial services is another area of great interest to applicants.

Offer Paid Internships

Talk to the career office at the school about how it pairs up students with internships and how your dealership could participate in such programs. This is a good route for those in need of temporary help or to try out various people before bringing them on full-time.

And despite popular belief, internships aren’t exclusive to the summer. Many people turn to a college to pursue a degree alongside their careers and may jump at the chance to get their foot in the door of a dealership no matter the time of year.

Shadowing programs — where the intern follows someone in, say, the Finance, Marketing or Sales department to learn the trade — are often fruitful for both the intern and dealership: The latter receives the help it needs for low-level tasks with minimal investment, while the former gains some real-world experience and builds relationships with the team, possibly with an eye toward long-term employment after completing their degree.