Recruiting Via Mail

Does everyone remember being inundated with college recruitment brochures? A trip tothe family mail box in junior or senior year of high school often yielded little more thana hernia as you were forced to lug in several dozen garishly colored pamphlets fromschools you never knew existed (or, if you were lucky, from that one "special"school you decided—back in third grade, of course—to attend) filled with thesmiling faces of people looking too well groomed to be typical college students. Just whenyou thought your days of poring over such garishly colored P.R. materials were over,welcome to the dawn of direct mail job recruiting.

In the wake of what employers across the country are calling a dearth of qualifiedcandidates, a number of companies are beginning to employ regular mail recruitmentliterature to help fill their needs. Though the practice is still limited, and, to somedegree regional, national organizations are getting into the act. One Mississippi-basedarchitectural firm recently sent out recruitment packages to some 40 chapters of anational architect’s association. The pamphlets are designed, according to aninterview in Management Weekly, to "catch someone’s eye and givean indication of the spirit of [the] firm." Sound familiar? Just keep up hope. Thativy league-caliber corner office job offer could be in the mail any day now.