A&F Campus Recruiting

While much of the class of 2008 will soon be I-banking their lives away, a handful will be scootering from their graphic tee design session to a fire-pit party—or so the recruiters from Abercombie and Fitch are hoping.

About 40 upperclassmen attended A&F’s corporate info session Oct. 9, where chill employees and an even chiller video (techno, anyone?) presented the company’s summer internships for juniors and job opportunities for graduates in fashion merchandising.

“We want nice, smart people that understand our brand,” says college recruiter Josh R. Secrest, a 2004 Yale graduate.

The smart sweeties that make it past the first-round interview will travel to A&F’s All-American, 400-acre campus in the woods of Ohio. As Derek Zoolander already copyrighted the “Walk-Off,” A&F has instead instituted the “Style-Out,” a grueling test in which interviewees choose the three hottest styles from a series of fashion designs and explain their picks.

In the past, Harvard students have surprisingly out-styled the competition: after visiting 20 top colleges last year, A&F handed Harvard grads eight of their 40 positions.

Vicki Mach ’08 attended the session after being impressed by an earlier A&F event. “I was really intrigued by the company’s presentation… everything looked sharp and clean,” says Mach. But her interest doesn’t extend as far as her wardrobe. Though the company’s corporate training brochure says that employees are their “best customers,” Mach admits that her A&F collection is sadly limited to “a few of the sweatshirts.”

Other recruits were similarly apathetic—there was hardly an embroidered moose in the room. But Secrest remained unfazed by Harvard’s lack of spirit.

“It’s a casual brand,” he says, casually.