The final number of applicants is still being calculated but over 5,400 resums were submitted by more than 150 Dartmouth students, according to Monica Wilson, assistant director of employer relations at Career Services. Students participating in the resum drop chose between 42 entry-level job opportunities and 70 summer internship positions in fields ranging from financial consulting to education.
Many have questioned whether the recent subprime mortgage lending crisis that began in late 2007 and the recent announcements of staggering fourth-quarter losses by major U.S. banks would negatively impact the recruitment process. This, however, was not the case, Wilson said.
"There is more activity this year than last year," Wilson said. "We keep hearing that the economy is bad, but this is not reflected in the number of calls we're receiving from employers."
Kate Schmidt '09, who applied for internships in finance, said the credit crunch did impact where she decided to apply.
"There are certain companies that have been stronger through [the crisis] and companies that stayed stronger will probably be able to hire more people," Schmidt said. "There are a few that I didn't apply to because I'd just read that they took a $20 million loss so I didn't want to work there."
Wilson attributed the rise in the number of interested employers to the fact that Dartmouth students present themselves as well-rounded and highly skilled. Companies often recruit Dartmouth students for summer internships with the hopes of preparing them for entry-level positions once they graduate.
"Employers don't want to put the time and effort into training new people every year," Diana Dinescu '09, a psychology and economics double major who applied to internships in financial consulting and sales and trading, said. "That means that if I get an internship, I'm going to work my ass off because I do want that offer."
Many juniors at the College use their summer internships at corporate firms as a means of determining a future career path.
"If I get hired for the summer, I want to find out if corporate finance is something that I would be interested in," Joanna Rosenberg '09 said. "If I end up hating it then I'll know not to do it in real life."
Though Tuesday night's deadline was the most highly publicized, it was only one of several deadlines for internship positions, Wilson said. Employers call on a daily basis to schedule times to come to campus and recruit, giving students multiple opportunities to meet potential employers.
Students primarily use InterviewTRAK Online Recruiting System to apply for internships or entry-level positions, which enables them to create personal profiles, research potential employers, upload their resums and send applications.
"InterviewTRAK is amazing -- you have all the lists of employers there and you can apply to however many you want," Dinescu said.
One problem that some students found was that certain companies -- including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch -- required applicants to apply on the company's website in addition to sending an application through InterviewTRAK. This added requirement made the application process more difficult, Dinescu said, because the questions asked on the company-specific applications were generally more difficult and specific to the industry.
Applicants who participated in yesterday's resum drop will be able to use InterviewTRAK to check the status of their applications in less than a week. If selected, students will be able to schedule interviews with potential employers.
