Next year, seniors will be able to bid for interview slots with every company that interviews on campus, Career Planning and Placement Director Patricia Rose said last week. The change is an effort to allow more students the opportunity to interview with firms recruiting on campus. Currently, only a handful of interviews are obtainable by the bidding process. Under the new system, every recruiter that comes to campus will be required to allocated a portion -- probably one-third -- of its interview slots to students who bid for them, Rose said. Each year more than 400 firms come to campus to interview and recruit University undergraduates. Until now the companies have decided who they want to interview by pre-screening resumes submitted by the students. All students will get 1000 "points" for the year to bid as they see fit. The students who bid highest for each company's open slots will get interviews. "This comes in direct response to student concerns," Rose said. "Right now, students in certain majors with high GPAs can literally have 40 interviews, while other excellent students can only get a handful." "To me that's not right," Rose continued. "Each student can only take one job. We want to give students a better chance. We want to spread the wealth." The bidding system will be tested during this spring's recruiting season with a few dozen companies, Rose added.
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