Sean Donovan '13 said he thinks that more students should make use of the variety of resources that Career Services provides, including employment fairs, one-on-one advising and mock interviews.
"They have resume workshops, they bring speakers to talk about interview strategies and bring people with different backgrounds to talk about opportunities in public affairs that Dartmouth graduates have done," Donovan said. "You don't need to participate in that process, but if you choose to, it's a big advantage."
Millen Abselab '13, who will work as a Teach for America corps member in Chicago next year, met the recruiter for Teach for America at Career Service's employment fair her junior year but said she would have preferred to see more nonprofit recruiting at the fair.
"I didn't get the sense that there were a lot of not-for-profit employment opportunities as there were finance and consulting companies," she said. "I was lucky enough that I had known what I wanted to do walking into the career fair I didn't feel like I was struggling to find an interest. For people who don't really know what they want to do, it may have been more difficult."
Anna Fagin '13 said she went to Career Services to search for internships for the summer of her junior year. She said she found the employees to be helpful and a useful source of guidance.
A 2011 survey conducted by Career Services revealed that over 96 percent of students were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with drop-in experiences and appointments and that over 94 percent felt Career Services exceeded or met expectations during drop-in hours and appointments, according to Career Services Co-Director Monica Wilson.
"We don't have enough students aware of all the resources we have to offer," she said. "A lot of employers are not able to come to campus, so we help connect students to a range of opportunities."
Donovan participated in the sophomore summer corporate recruiting process and received an offer for a job from Morgan Stanley.
"Career Services makes sure that undergraduates know that there are resources for writing a resume or cover letters in order to help students think about how they want to convey what they've accomplished up to this point," Donovan said.
Although Donovan said he underwent the interview process during sophomore summer, he sees corporate recruiting as a way to focus his interests and better prepare himself for the job application process.
"You don't need to choose to participate in the process, but if you want to it's a huge advantage," he said. "Maybe you think you're interested in banking and finance, so you can try it out in a winter or fall in an internship. And maybe it's not for you and you do something totally different in the summer to help set you up for another job in the future the process is what you make of it."
Lauren Willoughby '13 said she also participated in the sophomore summer recruiting process and acquired a job at Goldman Sachs after interning for the bank the previous summer.
"Though the recruitment process is competitive among Dartmouth students, there is no competition from students from other schools," she said.
Although Willoughby said did not attend any on-campus interviews while participating in recruiting, she used Career Service's DartBoard resource to find and schedule interviews.
Fagin said she has had numerous positive interactions with Career Services, including a recent interaction in which a staff member reached out to remedy an interview scheduling problem.
"The head of Career Services called the employer of the other company and rescheduled his lunch so that way I could meet with both companies," Fagin said. "And this was on a Saturday so she wasn't in the office. She was looking out for me, and that is something I will forever appreciate."
