Today was my last day shadowing in HR at SAS. The highlight of the day was sitting in on a meeting where university recruiters and members of the marketing section of HR worked together to brainstorm and make preparations for visiting career fairs and offering info sessions at universities in the fall. The team discussed and worked through any issues with the planning, such as with the handouts to students and deciding whether they will have multiple or just a singular handout, and if those will be flyers or brochure style. They also discussed the types of items that will be given out to students, such as stickers, laptop camera covers, and buttons, and weighed which of those options would be most enticing to students and which would actually be used by them and therefore broaden the reach of SAS’s brand. For example, a student putting an ‘I heart SAS’ pin on their backpack would allow exposure as they walk around campus. They also discussed t-shirt design, and how it’s essential that the shirt has SAS’s logo and name clearly on the front of the shirt, sleeve, and back. They pointed out that although in our area and throughout North Carolina there is generally a great knowledge of what SAS is and how amazing the culture and work experience is, in more distant states college students may have no idea what SAS is. Therefore, the meeting focused on how to get SAS’s name out there to students. It was very interesting to see the behind the scenes planning, and to see how HR and marketing connect and overlap and how effectively those with different areas of expertise were able to combine their knowledge to find solutions.
Later, we got to visit the warehouse where most of the SAS merchandise given out to students is stored, pictured below:
Also, after lunch, our host Christie showed us an area outside of Building R which was a nice open space with tables to eat or work, and it also had giant chess, which is pictured below: