(From FORTUNE) -- After Intel began to shift its hiring approach a year ago, a few candidates cried. Other soon-to-graduate students were so happy or excited that they forgot to ask about their salaries.

The big change? The tech company started to hire for some jobs in a week's time, instead of the multiple weeks it used to take. The process is now being whittled down to a couple of days, says Cindi Harper, Intel's (INTC) Americas talent delivery manager.

"The talent's not waiting," she says. Neither is Intel, apparently. In its new approach, managers and recruiters first determine the key attributes and skills for a job -- the profile they are seeking. Then a designated manager joins Intel recruiters at industry conferences and college career fairs, where they hand candidates an offer letter on the spot. A couple of days later, they work out details such as salary and where the job is located, Harper says.

Welcome to the new world of hiring in a hurry, an emergent recruitment method as more employers look to snag talent from college campuses and beyond before their competitors get to them.

Several companies are simultaneously facing a talent shortage and growing demand for their goods or services, so they are speeding up the talent pipeline and searching for other shortcuts to fill key jobs in IT, engineering, and other areas.

"Companies are starting to feel a real pinch for a lack of employees," says Dan Finnigan, chief executive of JobVite, a recruiting software platform that uses employee referrals and social networks. As business begins to pick up, Finnigan says, they think: "I have to hire some more people, fast."

A (gradual) return to pre-recession hiring times?

Last year, the average time from first interview to job offer for a college graduate was 22.5 days, compared to 25 days on average in 2009. The turnaround time is inching closer to 2008 levels (22.2 days), according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

More than one in five employers said they had missed out on a candidate last year because they did not give an offer fast enough, according to a recent CarerBuilder survey. This year, more employers say they plan to have all their summer jobs filled by the end of April, according to a survey by SnagAJob. And almost half of employers expect all their summer openings to be claimed before May; in 2010, it was 40%.

Employers are finally feeding a pent-up demand for new blood after resorting to huge cuts during the recession, says Finnigan, who ran the career site HotJobs.com for almost five years.

These days, one-fourth of JobVite's clients hire via an employee's referral, and those people are hired more quickly than candidates who come from career sites, according to research by JobVite. Referred candidates took, on average, 29 days from application to hire versus 39 days for job board applicants.

Certainly, many employers are sticking to a slower paced hiring process. Some career placement directors at business schools say they're not seeing much change in hiring turnaround times. And some executive recruiters also say they don't see an increase in hiring speed, especially when it comes to filling senior job vacancies.

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