A networking revolution: Using the Internet during the recruiting process

As the economy deteriorates, the landscape of opportunities for Princeton graduates is undergoing radical change.

A few years ago, with the unemployment rate below four percent and employers unable to fill even some of their most attractive positions, students could pick and choose between competing offers. Campus recruiters from investment banks and consulting firms were eager to line up new hires, and sites such as monster.com and hotjobs.com were flush with unfilled technical positions, allowing students to be selective in their search for employment.

These days, students have to seek opportunities the way employers used to seek workers. The technology and financial sectors which once provided attractive offers to graduates of a few years ago are scaling back, and students can no longer count on databases of unfilled jobs from which to choose.

Beverly Hamilton-Chandler, the director of Princeton's Office of Career Services, explained that the primary way Princeton students find jobs is through interviews with recruiters who visit campus. The second way, she said, is through personal networking. The Internet comes in a distant third, she noted.

Hamilton-Chandler voiced skepticism as to the value of many of the job postings present on online job search sites. She explained in many cases the sites list unattractive jobs Princeton students do not want — jobs which career services screens out as part of its placement process.

She also stressed that most of the sites focus on technology-related jobs, and provide fewer opportunities for those who seek work in other fields.

Although many students have conducted online job searches, Hamilton-Chandler said, "I don't think students have necessarily found this rewarding. The listings are not better, just more numerous," than the opportunities available through campus interviews and personal networking.

But Hamilton-Chandler emphasized the Internet has enhanced the traditional campus recruiting process. "It used to be that we would mail out resumes to employers once or twice a week," she said. "Now, students can provide resumes instantly, by e-mail." Career services employees can now use e-mail to alert students to job opportunities faster than ever before, she added.

The University uses an online tool called Tiger Tracks —formerly known as eRecruiting — to coordinate resume distribution, recruiting open houses and scheduling of campus interviews. These online functions are not new, but replace more old-fashioned ways of completing tasks the University has always done for its students, Hamilton-Chandler explained.

One area in which career services has made use of the Internet is the Internship Exchange, a joint project with several other universities that puts summer employment offers on the web for students to search. The database has over 25,000 internship opportunities listed, 2,000 of which are available only to Princeton students, according to the Office of Career Services.

The office's internal review showed that the site was visited 35,000 times last year. Hamilton-Chandler noted that her office's senior exit survey, in which nearly all seniors participate, reveals that more than 70 percent of graduating seniors had some sort of internship their last summer. While some of these internships are undoubtedly due to personal networking, she said, others are likely a result of the Internship Exchange.

Looking ahead, Hamilton-Chandler predicted that the softening economy will shift the focus of students' job search efforts. With companies doing less campus recruiting, she said, students will focus more on personal connections to find jobs.

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Indeed, Princeton's alumni career networking e-mail list is replete with queries from recent graduates. "Like several of my 2001 classmates, I had my job offer snatched from me by an uncooperative economy. Consequently, I am seeking any and all leads or suggestions that our esteemed alumni pool can provide," wrote one recent graduate.

"I'm a second year at Duke Business School, and similar to many other soon-to-be MBAs, I'm looking for a full-time job and am somewhat concerned about the current state of the job market!" offered another.

Hamilton-Chandler said that fewer than 20 organizations have rescinded or deferred offers they made to last year's graduates.

Hamilton-Chandler admitted, however, that these are some of the largest employers, including Accenture Consulting, the firm that hires more Princeton graduates directly out of school than any other firm. In all, she said, less than five percent of last year's job offers were rescinded or deferred.

She said that the changing economic conditions will shape her office's efforts, leading it to broaden the pool of potential employers to which Princeton students are exposed. She stressed that the opportunities available extend not only to investment banking and consulting, but also to marketing, retail and other fields.

Along with traditional for-profit firms, she said, Career Services also puts students in touch with non-profit and service opportunities. Internet-based tools, she explained, will help in this effort.

"We will use the technology we have to get our students out there in front of as many potential employers as possible," Hamilton-Chandler said.