Typical mid-semester demands like papers and exams may seem stressful to most students, but many seniors face an even more daunting task-finding a job.
As representatives from some of the nation's top companies arrive on campus for the recruiting season, students are scrambling not only to learn about job opportunities but also to impress recruiters face-to-face.
"You really want to get your name on the sign-up sheet just to show that you have the interest and have made the effort to get out there," said senior Doug Cerny, who volunteers as a member of the Career Center's Career Advising Team.
Forty percent of undergraduate students participate in on-campus recruiting, and most attend a number of information sessions, said Yolander Albert, associate director of the Career Center.
"It gives them face time with the representatives and it helps them to build relationships prior to their interviews,"Albert said. "It increases their likelihood of getting an interview, which in turn increases their likelihood of getting hired."
Albert said information sessions-which are usually attended by 10 to 200 students-typically involve a presentation followed by questions and answers, small group discussions and mingling.
Several recruiters said one-on-one time with students is an essential part of the recruitment process because it differentiates names from the many resumes they receive.
Brian Goldfarb, Trinity '03 and group product manager for Microsoft Corporation, said students who meet him personally can present the communication skills necessary for jobs in his field.
"There are so many soft skills that are required in the job that are almost impossible to relay in a resume," he said. "I can never tell if you're articulate, I can never tell if you have good communications skills, I can never tell if you're someone I want to go have a beer with."
A senior economics major, who asked to remain anonymous, completely attributed her job-seeking successes to her interactions with recruiters.
The student, who anticipates a career in sales and trading next year, said her 3.0 grade-point average presented her with a challenge when she sought an internship for the summer after her junior year.
After hitting it off with a representative at a recruiting dinner, however, she was offered a summer position at one of the nation's top financial firms, and her performance left her with a post-graduation job offer.
"It had to have been the woman I met at this dinner," she said, explaining the outcome. "I had not gotten any interviews up to this point-I had submitted my resume everywhere."
She added that the same skills she used to obtain her internship have helped her to cinch interviews with other top companies this year.
"It is all about the relationships and how you come across to not only a client but to a recruiter," she said. "You need to be very good with people and be very eloquent and confident."
Some Duke graduates, however, have successfully found employment without pursuing face time with recruiters.
Alima Wieselman, Trinity '06, currently works for Stockamp and Associates, a health care consulting group. She said that by listening at information sessions instead of meeting and greeting, she was prepared to impress employers with a more thorough understanding of their organizations.
"One of the biggest advantages of going to an information session is that you really get a sense of the personality of the company, and it helps you tailor your cover letter and resume," Wieselman said. "It really gives you a sense of what types of values they're focusing on, and it just helps in knowing how to prepare for an interview."
Caroline Hult, recruitment director for Teach for America in North Carolina, agreed.
Although she emphasized that students were encouraged to approach representatives after the company's on-campus presentations, she said the purpose of information sessions is to inform students.
"I see information sessions as literally that-a way for students to learn a lot more about our organization," Hult said. "It's a way for them to form a more accurate picture of who we are and what we do."
David Rausen, advanced consultant for IBM, said mingling is most important in behavior-based fields like sales, banking and consulting.
Albert, however, said meeting and greeting recruiters is valuable for students seeking jobs in all fields.
"I would say it is equally important for all the industries because you need to develop face relationships with people," Albert said.
Last year, 140 information sessions were held on campus in a wide range of areas including financial services, consulting, engineering and technology, government non-profit jobs and teaching.
Cerny said certain fields, such as investment banking, may appear to require more intermingling than others because of the sheer demand for jobs in those areas.
Cerny, an engineer, said he benefited from attending TechConnect-a panel discussion and networking session sponsored by the Career Center, Department of Computer Science and Pratt School of Engineering.
"I got a chance to really talk to a lot of companies there to the point that the next day at the Career Fair they recognized me and came up to me and continued the conversations we had the night before," he said.
Although he noted the advantages of meeting recruiters, Goldfarb said there is a threshold to excessive fraternizing.
"There's a line that you can cross where you're doing yourself more harm than good," he said. "I interacted with a lot of students who went out of the way to make sure they met people over and over again... that can be challenging sometimes because you're trying to engage with as many people as possible."
Goldfarb called the art of impressing recruiters a form of self-advertisement. "You're marketing yourself as a product," he said. "Getting a job is a job."
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