One hundred eighty-four students had submitted over 1,400 resumes through Monstertrak, Career Service's online resume submission portal as of Tuesday. This represents a huge jump in student interest from previous Summer term recruitment. This summer also saw a slight increase in the number of employers who were interested in recruiting Dartmouth students, bringing the total this year to around 20. The firms in attendance represented the fields of finance, consulting, media and law. Finance firms were the most heavily represented.
Most of the firms use their internship programs as feeders for full time positions, Monica Wilson, assistant director of employer relations at Career Services said.
The flexibility of the D-plan, which allows Dartmouth undergraduates to accept internships during the fall, winter and spring, gives them an advantage over the field.
Corporate recruiting can be difficult to navigate as interview processes vary depending on the employer. After reviewing rsums, some firms solely conduct phone interviews, while the majority of employers traveled to campus to hold their interviews at Career Services. At least 106 students were selected for interviews based on their rsums and cover letters, and 250 interviews were scheduled between July 19 and July 23.
The number of students who were offered an interview for each particular company varied widely depending on the industry. During this recruitment cycle, the minimum number of students a firm interviewed was 12, and the maximum was close to seventy, Wilson said.
The format of the interviews also varied depending on the company. Some companies conducting only one 30-minute interview, others conducted two 30-minute interviews, ranging all the way up to three 40-minute interviews at one time.
Wilson said that usually Career Services tries to avoid allowing employers to schedule such long interviews because they often interfere with student's class schedules.
Most of the interviews were one on one, but others were two on one. One employer even did a group interview, evaluating five to six students at a time.
After the process was over, employers were asked to evaluate the students as a whole on their interviewing skills, preparedness and the strength of the pool overall. Some of the main complaints Career Services heard from employers was that students did not always do sufficient research about the company to which they were applying.
Students also often fail to do research on the employer's industry before the interview, which is becomes apparent when they field interview questions.
In addition, Wilson said that Dartmouth students could do a better job of describing their transferable skills and relating their past experiences to the job in question.
"Sometimes students won't have looked at the website or talked to alums to find out more about the particular employer," Wilson said. "I've had students come in who can't even pronounce the company's name."
One way that many students prepared was by taking advantage of the many workshops on cover letter writing and interviewing and the resume review sessions offered by Career Services in the weeks leading up to the interviews.
"I brought my rsum to Career Services like 15 times, and they reviewed it for me every time, reading it over carefully." Andrew Kaminski '09 said. "They did the same with my cover letters, though I only brought those once."
This careful attention to detail often serves students well in the interview process, and employers seem to appreciate the extra effort.
"Employers have often stated this summer they can tell which students have taken advantage of the workshops. They look prepared, they know what questions to ask, and they can talk about their experiences in a concise and relevant manner," Wilson said.
In addition to providing feedback to Career Services many employers often leave feedback for individual students. When this happens, Career Services calls the students into the office in order to open up a dialogue about how the student can improve.
Many students who went through the interview process last Friday and this Monday have already received job offers or rejection notices. For students whom were offered internships, employers are required to allow two weeks for the students to accept or reject their offer as stipulated in the agreement the recruiters signed with Career Services before recruiting began.
Compensation packages vary depending on the firm and industry, but many employers try to offer interns a pro-rated amount of what a starting full time employee would make, Wilson said.
Other rules that employers must follow include sending only trained interviewers to the College and making sure that if the interviewer is a Dartmouth alum, they are significantly older then the candidates they are interviewing in order to avoid potential bias.
Students' reasons for participating in this Summer term's corporate recruiting cycle vary.
"I decided to do it because I talked to '06s and '07s who said it's never too early to get started. I'm looking at the process as a learning experience, and I'm using it to familiarize myself with the process as a means of better educating myself for future recruiting," Alex Cook '09 said. "It's definitely been a great ride,"
Despite the scramble for limited internship positions, there did not seem to be an overly aggressive atmosphere.
"I had a lot of other students help me out. Actually, a student who was competing with me for the same job looked over my cover letter and helped me correct a mistake," Kaminski said.
Now that the process is coming to an end and students are weighing their options in the two week decision window, most students do not regret their decision to follow through with such a demanding process.
"As much work as it is and as painful as people might say it is, the thoroughness is necessary, and changing the process wouldn't give candidates a chance to demonstrate their skills and who they are," Cook said.
