OCI Program's Popularity Rises

The number of applications submitted through the On-Campus Interview Program (OCI) has increased this year, according to Deborah A. Carroll, director of the on-campus interview program at the Office of Career Services. There was also a small increase in the number of students involved in the program.

According to Carroll, the program received 5,900 applications by the first deadline on Jan. 13, representing an 11 percent increase from the first deadline last year.

Carroll attributed the increase in applications to an increase in companies offering employment opportunities via OCI, rather than an increase in participation in the program.

The OCI program allows students to submit applications to a number of job and internship opportunities and then brings employers to campus to conduct interviews. Largely consisting of finance and consulting firms, the program also attracts companies ranging from Facebook to Procter & Gamble.

The majority of students applying during the spring recruitment process are seeking summer internship opportunities, Carroll said.

Harvard’s OCI program has five deadlines for applications throughout the recruitment period, which runs from January through spring break.

The second application deadline was yesterday.

“It’ll really be a test tomorrow to see how many students end up applying tonight,” Carroll said last night. “The first two deadlines do tend to be the largest deadlines.”

The academic calendar reform implemented in the 2009-2010 school year—when all fall final examinations were moved to December—has allowed students to prepare applications during their extended winter vacation. Before then, students faced both final examinations and recruiting deadlines in January.

Carroll speculated that students are now being “more discerning” in picking which positions to apply for because of the additional time.

“They’re not necessarily applying to everything or everything in a certain sector,” Carroll said.

According to Carroll, although the traditionally highly-coveted finance and consulting opportunities retained their popularity this year, OCS has seen an increase in students looking for marketing and education opportunities.

But Peter Chen ’13, who used the OCI program, said that he did notice that internship opportunities are skewed towards certain industries.

“OCI has a lot of resources for finance and consulting, but maybe not so much for some of the other majors,” Chen said.

Carroll acknowledged that the OCI program is not for all job-seekers, pointing to the Crimson Careers database maintained by OCS as an alternative way to find jobs and internships.

“Not only is OCI a small segment of your potential internship or job search, but it’s also a small portion of what we do at OCS,” Carroll said.

—Staff writer Hana N. Rouse can be reached at hrouse@college.harvard.edu.