On-campus recruiting sees more employers

As the school year comes to an end and Career Services begins analyzing this year’s data for on-campus recruiting, the “Class of 2013 has had a very successful recruitment year,” Director of Career Services Pat Rose said.

“We have almost final figures for on-campus recruiting,” Rose said. “We have a few things scheduled for next week, and we count interviews that we arrange here through video conference and Skype, and those … continue to happen.”

The number of employers to date that participated in OCR this academic year is up from 391 last year to 406 this year, reflecting what Rose called “a steady growth in employers” that attend OCR events. The 2006-2007 academic year saw the peak number of employers with 418 — a number Rose is very happy to be approaching once again, after the economic downturn caused a major drop in employer presence in subsequent years.

The number of interviews that were scheduled after cancellations is hovering right below 13,000, a number that is down from last year’s total of 13,900. Rose indicated two reasons for this slight decrease.

OCR lost a few days of recruiting this year due to Hurricane Sandy, with many employers — particularly in New York — unable to make it to campus for OCR events in the aftermath of the storm. While some of those interviews may have been rescheduled as phone appointments, Career Services does not count those in their OCR interview tally.

Rose estimated that around 500 interviews and some “very busy recruiting days” might have been lost due to the storm.

Another reason for the decrease in interviews is that “investment banks moved last year away from fall recruiting,” tending instead to make offers to their interns for full-time positions.

“They came in force in the spring for internship interviews,” Rose said. “But they did fewer interviews in the fall.” Rose estimated that around 400 interviews might have been lost because of this change.

Career Services increased the number of OCR “Career Days” — which bring many employers to campus on the same day for career fairs during which students can meet with employers — to 10, and is hoping to continue adding more in the next academic year.

Graduating students have started to complete surveys that will be analyzed and compiled into the Career Plans Survey for the Class of 2013, which will present postgraduate and employment data.

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