This fall, about 700 students submitted 6,929 applications for the 194 positions offered by 96 employers advertised through Dartboard, the Center for Professional Development’s online job portal. Compared to fall 2016, this past fall saw a similar number of positions available but a drop in the number of applicants, applications and employers.
According to Monica Wilson, senior associate director at the CPD, the number of students offered interviews was similar to last year. These numbers account for applications submitted during the fall term. The data is a combination of senior-year job applications and junior-year internship applications. Offer totals have not yet been reported.
In fall 2016, 768 students submitted a total of 9,654 applications to the 127 employers offering a total of 193 positions. The year before, 489 students submitted 4,760 applications for 141 positions.
Wilson attributes the decrease in applications to a shift in how recruiters operate. Between 40 to 50 employers shifted to recruiting on campus during sophomore summer instead of the fall. In turn, this meant that fewer students applied for jobs this fall, because they had already gone through recruiting this summer.
“More and more entry level employers are hiring exclusively from their internship pool to fill their first-time roles, so there were also fewer employers recruiting in the fall for full time,” Wilson added.
Wilson said that the decreases may also be the result of the introduction of having students film videos responding to a set of interview questions as part of the recruitment process, so recruiters did not need to travel to Dartmouth to interview each student individually.
According to Wilson, the majority of the available positions were in finance or consulting. However, she added that the CPD is seeing an increase in other fields, such as tech recruiting, digital marketing and data analytics. Wilson also said that the CPD can help students find jobs at companies that don’t recruit through Dartmouth.
“The CPD will assist students with other interests in sourcing potential employers in other industries and preparing for those interviews,” she said.
According to Anup Chamrajnagar ’18, a vice-president of the Dartmouth Finance Society, students and the CPD alike are overly focused on jobs related to finance.
“In general, if students are unsure where they want to work, the CPD gently pushes them towards consulting or finance,” said Kevin Kenneally ’18, co-president of the DFS.
Kenneally explained that students who superficially interact with the CPD often end up applying to consulting or finance firms because those are the most prevalent organizations that visit campus. He added, however, that students who engage in one-on-one meetings with the CPD can receive more personalized aid in their job searches, and that the CPD is often very helpful in guiding students toward jobs that suit their interests.
Ayanda Heita ’18, a co-president of Dartmouth Women in Business, shared similar observations to Kenneally.
“The general sentiment on campus is that the CPD only caters toward finance and consulting,” Heita said. “I think they are trying to increase opportunities for people outside of those two fields.”
Heita emphasized the work that groups like WIB and the Dartmouth Minorities in Business Association have done to try and make corporate recruiting more accessible to traditionally marginalized groups.
“Nothing good can come and has come out of a corporate ecosystem that excludes and/or alienates women and especially women of color,” Heita said. “If groups like Dartmouth Women in Business and Dartmouth Minorities in Business weren’t doing the work they are doing to promote these opportunities to these sub-groups, then what would the picture look like?”
Members of DFS expressed other concerns about recruiting, specifically how students interested in finance choose their field.
“A lot of students aspire for jobs in finance without really knowing what that means,” said Anish Chadalavada ’18, another vice-president of the DFS said.
While the CPD provides many resources, DFS members said the club tries to educate students on the financial industry.
Xander Fong ’18, co-president of the DFS, agrees that student organizations can play an important role in educating students.
“Coming to Dartmouth can be daunting because there are so many opportunities in front of you,” Fong said. “We try to establish a foundation for freshmen who are interested in finance before the CPD really kicks in during late sophomore and junior year.”
Wally Joe Cook is a freshman from Breezy Point, NY and a graduate of Regis High School. Wally Joe plans to major in Government and Economics at Dartmouth, and decided to join the D because of his interest in politics and journalism. Before joining the D, Wally Joe wrote for his high school newspaper and Politico. In his spare time, Wally Joe likes to ski and play Spikeball.
