9.2. CORPORATE CAREER SITES

Many companies are still focusing more on their own corporate careers Web pages than on social networking sites. That's wise, because millennials are indeed perusing them closely in their quest for the ideal job. The National Association of Colleges and Employers surveyed graduating students in 2007 and found that 81% said they frequently visited company Web sites, making it the most common job-search activity.

Jessica Foster's internship search illustrates just how significant recruiting Web sites have become in the battle for talent. The law student at Washington University in St. Louis spent hours combing law firms' Web sites. "I spent at least an hour on each firm's Web site to see their different practices and what the people and culture were like; it was one of the major factors for me in looking for a job," she says. "The Web sites also helped me gain information about the firm to use in my cover letters and interviews."

Yet she and other students find that far too many career pages lack pizzazz. They tend to be a dull assemblage of short text items describing the company and its workplace environment in vague, general terms. They are so plain vanilla that they're almost interchangeable with other companies' pedestrian careers Web sites.

So what will engage millennials? To get their attention, careers Web sites must address the generation's hot buttons: work-life balance, training and development, corporate social and environmental responsibility, and diversity. The most effective Web pages also provide a vivid sense of the corporate culture and a look at specific jobs, typically through video interviews, employee profiles, case studies, virtual tours, blogs, and podcasts.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. realized that it needed a livelier careers site and revamped it in 2007 to give it a slicker, hipper visual design and to focus more on the investment banking firm's employees. But the firm realizes that the millennials are savvy and want much more than sizzle. Consequently, the information on Goldman's careers site is still quite substantive, including a videotaped speech by company president and co-COO Jon Winkelried at the University of Chicago, his alma matter, to a sea of students in black business suits. He talks about the firm's culture and the fact that more than half of its revenue is now generated outside the United States. The careers site also offers an interactive quiz—"Where Do I Fit In?"—to help potential applicants figure out which areas of Goldman's business might be a good match for them.

Some companies are letting employees speak their mind in blogs on their corporate and careers Web sites. But not surprisingly, many of these blogs come off as sanitized PR, with mostly raves and few, if any, rants about the company. Such one-sided blogging is more likely to alienate than appeal to millennials, who definitely resent the phoniness of trying to disguise PR spinning as unfiltered blogging.

There are some blogs, however, that do seem a bit more balanced and provide some useful insights. Take, for example, Accenture'sWeb site, which includes blogs from both its consultants and recruiters. In many of the postings, recently hired employees describe their assignments and challenges at the management consulting firm, generally delivering very upbeat messages. But one blogger told about the disconcerting new experience of being on "bench time" between assignments and trying not to treat it like vacation. The blogger also discussed the unnerving process of trying to secure an appropriate project and compared it to being interviewed for a job.

On Accenture's recruiting blog, there's plenty of advice for applicants, ranging from keeping cover letters professional (resist pointing out that "I'm cute and fun to be around") and behaving properly during telephone interviews (listen closely before responding, take your gum out of your mouth, and don't eat lunch while speaking).

Millennials value their experiences very highly and want a window into the company they're considering applying to. They seek a genuine feel for what it's like to work for a specific company and gravitate to sites with video profiles of younger people they can relate to. Some companies wisely let young employees chat about their personal interests, as well as the nature of their jobs, to convey that they care about work-life balance.

Germany's Deutsche Bank has created a video-oriented Web site that includes such features as a day in the life of several of its employees. One vignette showcases a soccer player who works part-time in the bank's finance division in Frankfurt, Germany. It follows her from the gym to the company coffee bar to her desk, where she works with foreign currencies. In the Let's Talk section of the site, Tim, a young analyst in equity capital markets in London, says he likes the selling process and the satisfaction of meeting short-term goals, but isn't so fond of having to "power through" loads of documents.

The most appealing careers Web sites strive to be entertaining as well as informative. As unlikely as it might sound, law firm sites are among the most inventive and playful. To overcome the starchy, button-down image and the specter of long hours of monotonous work, some firms are delivering a hip, humorous message in the recruiting battle for the most coveted law school prospects.

The Morrison & Foerster law firm takes a very witty approach with its careers site, which certainly ranks as one of the most inspired on the Internet. For example, it features a section titled Pigeonholed that shows plenty of pictures of pigeons and asks, "Did you go to law school dreaming of drafting high yield covenants? Or maybe doing document production? Somehow those scenes never made it into Law & Order or Ally McBeal. Hmm, must have ended up on the cutting room floor." The firm goes on to say, "Will you be just one more unit of lawyer taking up residence in a new roost? Cushy roost for two to three years. Mind-numbing work. . . . Here we raise amazing lawyers; we leave the cultivation of pigeons to others."

In the Achievements section of the site, Morrison & Foerster doesn't simply tout its place in various law firm rankings; it lets you create your own rankings of the ugliest vegetables (choices include horseradish, artichoke, truffle), strangest celebrity names (Apple, Satchel, Nell Marmalade), and the most addictive snack foods (french fries, Oreos, Doritos).

Another law firm—Choate, Hall & Stewart—overhauled its careers site in 2007 to try to stand out from the crowd with millennial generation law students. "There is intense competition for top-tier law students, and we needed to increase our appeal to this generation with a more striking Web site," explains John Ventola, cochairman of Choate's hiring committee and summer program. "The new site has created a lot of buzz at law schools. Many students found it amusing and informative; some didn't like it, but at least it made an impression and showed that we have a different mentality than other firms." Choate saw a "dramatic increase" in interest in the firm during the fall 2007 recruiting season, he adds, and more students accepted invitations for second-round interviews than in previous years.

To differentiate the firm from bigger competitors, some of the Web site's videos pit Choate against Megafirm, in a style very similar to Apple Inc.'s Mac versus PC commercials. In one spot, the actor playing Megafirm is frazzled because he can't find his lost briefcase and can't keep track of all of his firm's offices; in another, Megafirm wears his suit and brings his briefcase to the beach. The actress playing Choate, meanwhile, is focused on clients, not office locations, and is free to relax on vacation. But that last message didn't ring true with everyone. One cynical visitor to the site posted this comment: "Since when did associates get vacations?"

The firm's summer interns star in other videos. Their comments don't really have anything to do with work. But that's the point. The takeaway message is that there's more to life than a job if you work for Choate. Amelia Stewart, a student at Boston College, says she wrote a thesis on horror films and that The Shining is her favorite; Michael Oliviero, a student at Emory University, tells about joining a Swedish folk group whose songs are like a blend of Mister Rogers and John Denver. "But don't worry," he says. "I'm not going to sing for you."

Jessica Foster, the dedicated Web site searcher at Washington University, also appears on Choate's Web site, having ended up at the firm for her internship in 2007. Choate's old site helped attract her to the firm, but she finds the new version much more fun and enticing. In her video clip, she chats about her love of downhill skiing and her pride in running in her first marathon. "The videos provide a look at the personalities at the firm," she says, "and that is one of the major factors for my generation in looking for a job."