Students Spiff Up for Recruiters

Hundreds of Harvard students—about to compete against each other for some of the most coveted, highest-paying jobs given to college graduates in the nation—are queued up in Science Center B to nab a guide to e-recruiting. When a new line forms across the room, already packed to capacity, students rush through the aisles to claim their spot at the head of the pack.

Let recruiting season begin.

This fall, as undergraduates perfect their resumes, hone interview skills, and compete for posts in the financial world, students in suits, ties, and heels will be as ubiquitous as trick-or-treaters.

“It’s an indication of the different attitudes that people take,” says Britton R. Tullo ’06, a veteran of the recruiting process who says she laughed with her friends as some students sprinted to get in line at the event last Wednesday, sponsored by the Office of Career Services (OCS). “There are certainly a lot of people who take it as like a personal competition.”

And with about 1,000 Harvard students registered to vie for jobs offered by over 135 consulting firms, banks, and other employers, a competitive, often tense atmosphere simply comes with the territory.

“The most intimidating people are the kids who did the internships their junior summer and recruiting worked out for them,” says Ranim M. Elborai ’06. Elborai started doing e-recruiting as a junior but dropped out when she got a job through other channels. Now, after deciding not to go to law school, Elborai says she is ready to go through the recruiting process.

She knows it won’t be easy, but remains circumspect. “I feel like since I’m a senior now I have to suck it up and do it,” she says.

“Honestly, most kids do this to be rolling in the dough,” she adds.

Although students may already be showing their competitive streak at the orientation meetings, it is the interviews—which run October 14 to December 9—which students say are the most fierce.

“There’s like a glass box where everyone waits for the interviews and you can definitely feel the competition in the air,” says Namrata Patel ’06, who snagged an internship with Merrill Lynch last year through e-recruiting. “You’ll be in 1414 Mass. Ave. for days.”

First-round interviews take place at the Harvard-owned building on Mass. Ave., and scare stories from the waiting room and the interviews abound among recruits. Finance recruiters frequently ask students to recall financial data, such as what the market closed at the day before, and consulting recruiters might throw a curve-ball case-study question that could stump even the most prepared senior.

“Last year I got asked some really random math questions in the middle of the interview,” says Tullo, a History and Science concentrator. “That’s probably the trickiest part for me: ‘So tell me a little about yourself and uh, eight cubed.’”

Students say that the threat of the curve-ball question makes waiting room tensions even worse.

“Nasty things do happen,” says Elborai. Elborai says that her friend was thrown off by a question after a student left his interview and told the whole waiting room the wrong number for the market closing.

“They were asked the same question after and it turned out that he gave them the wrong number just to throw them off,” Elborai says.

Of course, the competition also fosters some camaraderie, albeit tense.

“People grill each other and ask questions when they’re in the room waiting to go in,” says Tullo, who has been wearing a suit and high black heels all week.

Judy Murray, director of recruiting at OCS, strongly urges seniors to research the market they are interested in to be prepared for these difficult questions, but also warns seniors that looking the part is very important.

“You don’t want to be too flashy,” Murray said to the full auditorium at last Wednesday’s event. “Err on the side of the conservative.”

Many students must cast aside their standard sweats and t-shirts in favor of pumps and ties.

“It is a bit of a culture shock,” says a jeans-clad James R. Pautz ’06, who hopes to get recruited by Teach for America. “I’m thinking about buying a suit.”

Aspiring recruits are expected to dress up for the many information sessions in addition to their interviews.

“I’ve only seen a few people who weren’t really dressed up at the info sessions, and they really stood out,” Tullo says.

There are 23 information sessions on the OCS recruiting schedule for this week alone, include workshops on resumes and interviews tailored to different careers.

“I think it’s a huge time commitment,” Tullo says.

Perhaps it is the size of the commitment that led Murray to advise the overflowing Science Center classroom, “You really have to ask the question, ‘Is this what I want to be doing?’”

Tullo says most people she knows who did recruiting ended up landing a job.

“I think the recruiting process has its advantages and disadvantages,” Patel says. “It’s really easy, it’s a passive process. It’s all set up for you but because of that it’s all obviously competitive.”

Murray says that, for students, going through the recruitment process and taking a job in consulting or banking is only “the first step in their career exploration process,” and that many students use the opportunity to try out a career before graduate school.

Murray credits the slight increase in attendance at the orientation meetings to the healthy economy, and says that the competition among seniors extends beyond the recruiting sphere.

“There’s competition amongst everything, not just recruiting,” Murray says.

But Elborai says that the competition among seniors for admission to top graduate schools is “more abstract” than the race for a job.

“You’re competing with a bunch of different kids but you don’t get to see them,” she says. “[Recruiting] is more face to face and more abrasive.”

To combat the stress of vying with one’s peers for the same high-powered jobs, coupled with the annoyance of corporate dress, maybe the only solution is to laugh it off.

“It’s also kind of fun and exciting but I do have to take it with a sense of humor or else it would stress me out,” Tullo says.

—Staff writer Liz C. Goodwin can be reached at goodwin@fas.harvard.edu.