As the steady stream of formally dressed Dartmouth students heading down Main Street for job interviews slows to a trickle, many students who aren't on campus this term are left wondering whether it is more beneficial to be at Dartmouth during the process of corporate recruitment.
Students who are currently going through corporate recruitment, the vast majority of whom are juniors, are interviewing for summer jobs from a variety of employers, most commonly from the financial and marketing sectors.
On campus, the corporate recruitment program is run through the Career Services. The program brings employers to campus to interview and select students for entry-level jobs and internships. This "preselect" process allows students to use the online service InterviewTrak, a division of the job-search engine MonsterTrak, to apply for on-campus interviews.
"Being on campus is a lot simpler because the process is pretty straightforward," Chris Knape '08 said. "All you have to do is write a cover letter and a resume and then Career Services helps you through the rest of it."
On-campus interviews take place at the Career Services office and are typically preceded by a meet-and-greet at the Hanover Inn.
"Going through the process at Dartmouth is nice because you know everyone that is going through it with you," Ursula Grisham '08 said. "The pre-interviews take place at the Hanover Inn, its all neutral space."
Students who are off campus over Winter term, however, cannot participate in the preselect process. These students must participate in a "resume drop," applying via InterviewTrak for interviews on site or over the telephone.
Many students are frustrated by the increased requirements and red tape that comes with applying off campus for jobs. Many companies have deadlines that come before the on-campus recruitment deadlines.
"I have found it substantially more difficult to be off campus because companies have special requirements," said Tom Healy '08, who is interning in Boston at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. "You have to individually e-mail all of the companies, so it is based more on personal responsibility."
Though companies that recruit on campus are aware of Dartmouth's unique academic calendar, employers often confuse applicants, or request that students return to campus for interviews. Students that chose to work full-time jobs on their off-terms find this a difficult task to accomplish.
"It is definitely much harder to go through the process off campus, said Monica Wilson, director of employer relations at Career Services. "We send instructions to students who are off but complications arise when employers get so many applications that they don't divide them into students who are on campus and those who need off-campus interviews. So students who are off campus feel that they are at a disadvantage."
On campus, students find the process stressful because of the time it takes up and the increased competition it engenders.
"There is definitely some unnecessary stress that comes out of being on campus during recruitment," Elisa McCarthy '08 said. "You're sort of in the middle of your own process while hearing about everyone else's, which is a little distracting and creates hoopla that might not exist if you're in New York and not really talking to your classmates and upperclassmen about it."
