In total, 569 students participated in resume drop this year, fewer than last year at this time, when 625 students participated. A second resume drop on Jan. 27 will offer students an additional 70 or more opportunities, a considerable increase from last year.
Overall, Wilson expects that the number of students participating in and resumes submitted through recruiting this year will far exceed that of previous years, reflecting greater outreach by Career Services and increased offerings from employers.
A total of 693 students participated in Winter term resume drops last year and submitted 8,051 resumes.
Last year, 103 opportunities were available to students in the first January resume drop and 20 in the second, while this year the two resume drops will offer students at least 150 opportunities in all.
Already, students have submitted 980 applications for this year's second January resume drop and smaller February deadlines.
"We expect the next resume drop will bring in additional unique students," Wilson said. "We were still accepting requests from employers seeking Dartmouth students this morning."
The resume drops are generally geared toward graduating seniors seeking full-time positions after graduation and juniors seeking Spring or Summer term internships that could translate into full-time offers.
While Career Services programs at Dartmouth and other universities have been criticized for having an "overabundance" of opportunities in finance and consulting, Wilson noted that Dartmouth's program has worked hard to expand its offerings for jobs in government offices, non-profit organizations and education-related fields.
She said that not all companies, however, have the same recruiting budgets or can support sending representatives to Hanover for on-campus information sessions and interviews.
Dartmouth alumni are also more strongly represented in fields like banking and finance.
For organizations that cannot send representatives to campus, Career Services collects resumes and organizes phone interviews. Still, students have requested that more firms send recruiters to campus, Wilson said.
"When students ask why can't representatives from a specific firm come to campus, they have to think about the cost to the firm and the travel as well," she said.
Offerings outside of banking and finance this year failed to attract as many applicants as the office expected, making it harder to bring these employers to campus in the future, Wilson said.
She noted that recognizable firms in banking and finance receive 200 or more applicants for their summer internship programs, compared to just five or 10 for internships in education and marketing.
Over the past few years, job listings posted through Career Services have increased with the recovering economy, especially for summer internships, Wilson said.
Wilson has noticed that more of these internships are turning into full-time offers from employers.
"Firms are realizing the value that internships offer them to preview their entry-level hires," Wilson said. "In the last year or two, we've definitely seen an uptick."
Career Services is trying to expand its options for students over breaks, particularly the newly extended winter interim, by offering more job shadow opportunities with alumni, Wilson said.
David Connolly '13, an engineering major and math minor, received a full-time offer to work at Bain Capital's Boston office during the Fall term resume drop and said he was impressed with the variety of offerings.
Connolly said he utilized the office's alumni network to talk informally with alumni in different fields before going through the recruiting process to better understand what kind of a full-time position he was interested in.
"It was a great way to get a name of an alum, email them, introduce myself, talk about the job and learn a little more about it," Connolly said. "Probably 50 percent or more of people responded in my experience it was extremely helpful."
Michael Danaher '13, an economics major and public policy minor who received a job offer from Fidelity Investment's Merrimack, N.H. office during the Fall resume drop, said that students who are proactive and practice for case interviews are at an advantage.
"If I did it again, I would try to use the Career Services networks more to learn from alumni about their jobs and tips for interviewing," Danaher said. "A lot of stuff I did was the result of trial by fire."
Even though he acknowledged some mishaps during the process, Danaher said he was fortunate to land a position that he believes suits his personality and interests.
"A lot of people are attracted to big name firms and visibility," Danaher said. "I got rejected from a bunch and learned from it. In the end it worked out, but I could have prepared better."
The second recruiting deadline is 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 27.
