I am a VP at a BB in a BO role. In addition to my daily duties, I'm also assigned to HR to work with the summer analyst program. Last year I had 3 SAs working for me and this year I've also been assigned to some OCR activities. I'll remain a little vague for my own privacy, but let's just say that this recruiting season I've been involved with a career fair and another recruiting night event (think of like case competitions and things like that). I'm open to keeping this as an Q&A and will reply as time allows. Here's some things I'll pass on: ####1 - When you rep at a career fair, HR only wants you to send them the best resumes. So, most of the time your resume is going to end up in the trash. The resumes that I held onto (and requested interviews for) were the ones who presented themselves well, showed enthusiasm for my company and were well-spoken in their replies. Don't just jump into introducing yourself; say hello, ask about my day, thank the reps for coming out to visit your school. This type of "soft" approach goes a long way towards me remembering you and writing a positive note about you. ####2 - At most large companies, recruiting is a nightmare. It's super hard to co-ordinate people's schedules and make sure that interviews are carried out in time to fill positions. So, when I ask you to send in your resume do it right away! I had to turn down at least 3 candidates this year because they took 5 days after a career fair to send me their resume - my deadline was 2 days after the event. One of them told me that they had to revise their resume before sending it to me - you're at a career fair, you should have a copy ready to go, otherwise you're wasting your time. ####3 - Be on LinkedIn. Yes, I know this may sound basic to some of you, but there's still plenty of students out there that are not on LI and you're missing out. Most recruiters that I know live and die by LI and I am also 10x more likely to reply to your LI message than via my corporate email. ####4 - Don't lose hope. Yes, not everyone will get an SA position but there's always full-time after your senior year, there's always another position down the road in your career. Just because I can't pick you today doesn't mean that we won't cross paths again. It's a small world out there and job postings are coming up every day. Make the best impression you can and stay in contact.
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Hi GoingToBeAnMD,
Thanks for the AMA. Interesting to hear you say "HR only wants you to send them the best resumes", since I've always been under the impression that HR had little say in hiring evaluations. This brings me to wonder, what type of people work at BB HR, who has more of a say (bankers v. HR), and how do they screen?
Additionally, would you say the Linkedin > email response habit is a prevalent trend now? Always had been the opposite, at least in my experience. Maybe it's changing as (relatively) younger folks start making VPs?
Last of all, would you mind sharing a story or two about the most memorable and/or worst performing candidates you've encountered?
Thanks,
Just so you know, I'm not in HR. So, in that sense, HR does have little say because I'm still the initial filter for them. Putting some numbers around it, at the last career fair, I collected close to 200 resumes and I asked HR to call in 12 (or so) for interviews, the rest were trashed and never even seen by HR. It can also be that we find a good candidate on our own and we can direct HR to start the process with them. In both of those cases, HR is more like a "facilitator" than anything else.
I should have made that portion clearer. I was referring to casual messages or ways to keep in touch with someone. The formal invitations to interview may still be traditional phone/email. For example, for the case competition night, a student may post a pic of their display board or their paper and send it to me on LI. I'm much more likely to respond to that than I am a message in my, already-crowded, corporate email.
I really don't want to embarrass anyone or give away too much for my privacy. But there have been times when they completely blow their shot at an interview or superday. I get it, its a long, stressful day for you. But we took the time to fly you in, you're dressed your best, now its time for you to perform. I've seen people completely break down and just not do well in the worst ways (think things like blanking out, crying, etc) Basically, the bad has been bad.
Also, bad email etiquette will never get you far. Be polite, make small talk, try to make friends. I will always add extra points for good stuff like that and bad emails will never get a reply.
Thanks for the insight. I should've worded it better - my last question was meant to ask about how students at career fair can make good enough of an impression to become one of those 12/200+ resumes. You mentioned obviously to be well mannered, but what else is there to it when hundreds of kids walk up to you with their best faces on, one after one after one...
The email etiquette part is interesting too. I've consistently heard conflicting things between "get to the point, 4 sentences max!" vs. your perspective (in terms of cold calling to seek an informational interview).
In multiple threads on here, I have recommended the books by Jeffrey Gitomer - go out and by his "little black book". His posit is that no one wants to be pitched, but people all want to do business with their friends. So your goal should be to make friends, not just people you want something from. Ask how my drive in was, say something nice about my tie, have a positive and friendly attitude. Those things will always stand out.
I wouldn't say that the "4 sentences max" is a bad thing to abide by - but make those sentences count! Send me an interesting article you read and your take on it, send me pics from your latest project/hobby, tell me about the courses you're taking, etc. Same thing as above, really; don't pitch me, tell me about you and try to make a new friend instead. To be sure, this is a long term play, it takes time to make friends. But that pays off when down the road I have a spot open and I can say, "I have this friend who's graduating this year and he'd be good for this role". That goes further than "some damn kid that keeps asking for a coffee chat".