Spring break season will soon hit, giving college students a brief respite from the daily grind. But as students prepare to take a breather, companies across the country are rigorously prepping for college recruitment season.

As it turns out, college recruiting is starting earlier and earlier in the college lifecycle — sometimes beginning all the way back in high school.

Branding is front and center

Monster Career Expert Vicki Salemi told HR Dive in an email that college recruiting is still worthwhile. But rather than wait for recruitment cycles, employers need to be proactive and capture college student attention early via internship programs and other early career stepping stones. "It's important for employers to brand themselves and market to college students for internships that can hopefully convert into full-time positions upon graduation," she said. The competition for a finite number of grads is fierce; businesses must position themselves well and have recruiters at the ready to respond to even the most casual interest.

It's often easier for larger organizations that can allocate funds and resources to make their presence felt year round through interview days and meet-and-greets, Salemi said. That shouldn't discourage smaller companies from participating, she advises. Typically there will be someone who handles campus recruiting. Smaller organizations will need to work just as hard, but differently due to their size.

Building a campus presence is more than being there for job fairs, Vivek Ravisankar, co-founder and CEO of HackerRank, told HR Dive. Technology has now become an integral part of university recruiting, as is targeting what students look for in a future employer. HackerRank data reveals that for student developers, potential for growth is 5 times more important than perks. "This is critical information for recruiters — knowing that helping upcoming developers capitalize on their skills and learn new skills may be more important than catered lunches," Ravisankar said in an email.

What's trending?

Students want to be courted where they play, Salemi said. And that means: "Social media, social media, social media," she said. "Aside from attracting students, social media also shows employers have a face and a three-dimensional space to show photos of friendly employees in and out of the workplace." Stay ahead of the pack, she noted, by staying relevant — go to campus events, have a presence on social media, reach out, follow up and build relationships with students.

Many recruiters are rethinking any potential snubbing of liberal arts degree holders. Data from Monster suggests these grads may hold strong soft skills, such as leadership, communication and emotional intelligence. And since employers are in need of workers with soft skills, more recruiters are widening their nets to include holders of degrees without the typically well-sought technical elements, such as coding or data science.

But if those hard skills are a necessity, hackathons and competitions are also becoming a large part of university recruiting. "Universities themselves are hosting hackathons, such as University of Michigan's MHacks competition," Ravisankar said, "and we're seeing more organizations like Greylock, a venture capital firm that hosts hackathons to help their portfolio companies find talented developers."

Special events

With the competition for talent so fierce, businesses will need to make room in the budget to attend special university recruitment events, which can be relationship building opportunities, Salemi said; "The bottom line is that companies want to meet candidates in informal ways, get to know them, build rapport and ultimately show candidates a glimpse of what it would be like to work for them by meeting potential future colleagues."

Companies are also beginning to invest in educational events at colleges where students can actively examine and talk to company experts about the technology the organization is working on. Large conferences like DeveloperWeek often have recruiting events that employers can take part in, Ravisankar said.

What's on the horizon?

High school recruiting is also "in," Salemi said, as is generally starting communications with potentials early on. "With college recruiting, by the student's junior or senior year, it's often too late. It's important to meet students when they're freshmen and sophomores so they can intern and gain experience in the space."

College recruiting is competitive, she added. If you're not recruiting on campus, chances are your competitors in the space are.