Small companies want college grads

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Fall classes start at The University of Texas on Wednesday, but finding a job after college in this economy is still a big concern for students.

But new recruiting tools, like Campus 2 Careers , are connecting students with job opportunities in small- to mid-sized companies they might not know existed.

"Students just don't get off campus," said Nathan Green of Campus 2 Careers. "Their network is people they know on campus, so they're left out of the biggest part of our economy."

Small- to mid-sized companies make up 98 percent of the economy. There are 34,000 small- to mid-sized businesses in Austin alone.

"The job creation engine in the U.S. is the startups that have 10 or fewer people in their companies," said Kevin Koym of Tech Ranch , a resource pool for startups in Austin. "That's where all the jobs are being created."

Startup companies offer recent graduates a learning experience they might not find in larger corporations.

"All [students] can see are huge corporations like Halliburton or BP, and they don't realize there's really valuable opportunities with small businesses doing really important, really innovative stuff," said Kathleen Hetrick, a junior engineering major at UT.

Smaller companies like recruiting college students because of their creativity and fearlessness.  Eleven of the 37 employees at Circular Energy are recent graduates.

"We found a lot more energy, and a lot more focus to detail, and really the type of people we want to hire coming out of college," said James Brooks, the vice president of engineering at Circular Energy.

Campus 2 Careers estimates that 80,000 people applied for 18 jobs at Google in Austin last year, compared to a few hundred at WhaleShark Media , which is one of the fastest growing companies in the country.

Campus 2 Careers will host their "Intern in Austin" seminar Sunday, Sept. 9 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center , located at 1900 University Ave.