Students compete for fleeting internships

Operations research and financial engineering (ORFE) majors lined up with English majors and pre-meds Friday to hand their resumes to recruiters from the pharmaceutical organization Merck, one of the 46 companies represented at the annual Career Services internship fair.

In the crowded Frist Multipurpose Room, more than 150 students engaged in what Jessica Westerman ’12 called “the frantic search for jobs” that has emerged this year. In the continually shrinking job market, students who once would have sought internships in specific, specialized industries are broadening their searches, Westerman added.

“There are a lot of people out there looking for something, just throwing their applications out,” she said.

Students looking for summer internships in organizations in the financial industry are facing even stiffer competition than usual this year, employers said. As several of these companies scale back their internship programs, many prospective interns are choosing to branch out and apply for summer jobs in other industries. Small companies with little name recognition, many of which offer only unpaid internships, are also experiencing higher demand for their limited positions, recruiters said.

The internship shortage has been good news for some employers, though, as the shrinking number of jobs in the big banking and finance firms is forcing many students to explore other options.

“In terms of highly qualified candidates, there are more today as opposed to even last year,” said Michael Doyle, managing director and recruiter from Novahill Partners, a small boutique investment bank based in Princeton. “I think it’s supply and demand. There are fewer jobs out there.”

According to a new Jobfox poll, 76 percent of the 200 recruiters polled said that the recession is an opportunity to bring in higher quality job candidates.

“[The economic situation] certainly has changed,” said Alan Barnes ’08, a recruiter for the financial news and data company Bloomberg. “You see guys that had jobs, and suddenly they didn’t have jobs ... There’s a lot more people who are like, ‘Jobs? Jobs?’ ”

Economics major Randy Wang ’10 said he was having trouble finding jobs in finance. “There are just fewer opportunities, because so many of the big banks that were once here are now gone,” he said. “I’m looking more into investment banking, and there’s only one investment bank here, and it’s a boutique firm.”

ORFE major Teck Hsien Ho ’10 agreed that it’s been difficult to find a job that fits his career goals this year. “Maybe [that’s] because of the recession, maybe because of some other factors, but definitely it’s been a challenge so far,” Ho said.

A representative from one of the pharmaceutical companies at the fair commented that the company’s applicants come from increasingly varied academic backgrounds.

“We’re looking for chemists, chemical engineers, biologists [and mathematicians], and typically we don’t have finance people coming to us,” said the representative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “This year, there were finance people coming to our table.”

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The recession is also boosting the applicant pool at FG Companies, a small boutique investment bank in New York that only offers unpaid internships, said Kai Chan GS ’04, an associate at the firm.

“[The downturn] is great for guys like us, honestly, because we’re finding a lot of people who are saying, ‘Yeah, we’re happy to work for you for free,’ ” Chan said.

“I noticed last year when we did interviews and said, ‘Just to be clear, this is an unpaid internship,’ some people were wavering,” Chan explained. “This year, when I explicitly start off the interview saying it’s an unpaid internship, they’re fine with that, and just say, ‘Let’s proceed.’ ”

Director of Career Services Beverly Hamilton-Chandler said in an e-mail that some employers are streamlining the hiring process in light of the economic crisis.

“In some cases, as employers utilize a variety of cost-cutting measures, some employers are posting their positions and have shortened the interview process in order to make offers sooner,” she said.

As juniors apply for more internships in a greater variety of industries, underclassmen are facing a very competitive pool, freshmen and sophomores said.

ORFE major David Pan ’11 said, “I think there are [many fewer internships] for sophomores, a lot more just focused on juniors.”

Engineering student Sarah Lux ’12 agreed that it’s been difficult to find an internship as a freshman this year. “I want something in civil and environmental engineering, but because I’m a freshman, I don’t have the same experience as some of the older students do.”

Students with less experience are particularly vulnerable in the shrinking job market, Westerman said, noting, “there aren’t a lot of companies willing to hire an expendable intern to get them coffee when they’re downsizing to begin with.”