Penn students jump to impress on-campus recruiters

When some of the nation's top consulting firms, tech companies, and banks go to the University of Pennsylvania to recruit, the campus transforms.

You can almost smell it: Students walk around in pressed suits, gripping monogrammed leather-bound portfolios. Boys swap sneakers for dress shoes, and girls click their heels on the bricks of Locust Walk.

Penn students still land jobs in a tough economy, thanks in part to On-Campus Recruiting, a high-stakes process that runs from January through spring break and attracts several hundred firms.

Of the 2,386 students in the Class of 2010, 847 landed jobs before graduation last year, according to a survey by the school's Career Services office. About one-fourth of them said they owed their success to campus recruiting.

"We try really hard to accommodate employers. . . . If they're going to pick a school to go to, we want them to come here," said Career Services director Patricia Rose.

Starting every January, campus life turns frenzied. Students juggle interviews with classwork, and many professors prohibit students from missing class to meet recruiters.

This year, when the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. arrived, hordes of undergraduates piled into a campus conference room to hear its recruiters. Pockets of students sat erect taking notes, but after a half-hour they slumped into their chairs and fiddled with their BlackBerrys.

"A lot of the time, they're not really saying anything," Wharton School junior Isaac Setton said.

Eventually, the presenter wrapped up and invited students to mingle with recruiters over dessert. Heads perked up. Game on.

Streams of bushy-tailed students hurled themselves toward the recruiters, hoping to get a word in before their classmates. Some were set on getting their resumés into the right hands; others were collecting business cards.

Tables of cheese and crackers, sliced fruit, cookies, and coffee went largely neglected by students.

"I would never want to be eating while I was trying to make an impression," said junior Rachel Baker. "I wouldn't want to spill on myself."

Above all, students wanted to appear enthusiastic.

"It's funny, because everyone's trying to express their interest . . . but all the other kids know that they're doing the same thing at every firm," said Wharton junior Jeff Westcott, who will intern at Credit Suisse this summer.

Westcott and Baker found the recruiting process valuable, even enjoyable. Though she does not have an internship yet, Baker was impressed with the recruiters she met, especially one consultant working to improve the nation's public schools.

Junior Jon Oppenheim saw it as more of a hoop-jumping exercise, though it earned him a Credit Suisse internship.

"Toolishness is the name of the game, really," he said. "Walking around with your little portfolio . . . talking to these people as if you knew what you were talking about, trying to get them to like you."

Senior Ian Cohan-Shapiro, who will work at Google, said he thought students got caught up in the competitive frenzy regardless of what they had gone to Penn to study.

He witnessed one female student hand her resumé to a recruiter and then promptly launch into a sales pitch. He imitated her:

Hi my name is . . . . As you can see from my resumé, I have worked in fashion for two years. . . . Now you might ask yourself, why would a girl with experience in fashion be interested in a job in consulting? Well . . .

"I was embarrassed for her, and the [recruiter] was super uncomfortable," Cohan-Shapiro said, "but I feel like it happens all the time."

After the information sessions, students sent streams of formulaic follow-up e-mails, hoping to land interviews.

Kara Liebel, a senior recruiter with IMS Health, said a follow-up note could make an impression, but not a generic "thank you." She added that friending recruiters on Facebook "doesn't advantage you in any way."

But there are other ways to get a leg up - like getting invited to "dirty rush." These are exclusive gatherings hosted by a recruiter in a coffee shop or, better yet, at the company's office. Having a connection could help wangle an invitation, or simply shining at an information session.

To make it official, students apply for positions online. Near midnight on the day that a company's interview offers are posted, applicants sit tight-jawed at their computers, moist palms cupped over the mouse, ready to snag the best time slots when the clock strikes 12.

Some said a "good" slot was one that did not interfere with class. For others, it is first thing in the morning, based on the theory that recruiters are freshest at that point. Others said they preferred the end of the day in the hope of making a lasting impression.

As the interview offers - and rejections - accumulated on their OCR accounts, students said they wished the "not invited" tags would disappear.

"Every time you check if you got a new one, you're reminded of all those previous failures," Oppenheim said.

Most one-on-one interviews took place in a windowless, fluorescent-lighted basement known as "the Dungeon." Students sat on couches skimming the Wall Street Journal, texting, or chatting as they waited to be called in.

Some interviews involved daunting quantitative exams, and consulting companies always ask case-study questions. A sample problem on McKinsey's website asks whether fast-food chain "Great Burger" should acquire "Heavenly Donuts."

"There is more than one answer," recruiters stress.

Students who made it past the first stage moved on to second-round interviews. Shortly after, candidates heard back from companies - and just like that, it was over.

With recruiters gone and offers made, students at Penn have reverted back to jeans and T-shirts.

"I'm allergic to suits now," Oppenheim said, his tone turning serious. "I never want to wear a suit again."