Unfortunately, for the most part, companies do not bother to send their top management to recruit fresh graduates. They do not, for the most part, even send middle management. They unfortunately, typically, send a college recruiter from the personnel department-whose ink on his own diploma is not yet that dry.
There are definitely exceptions to the above statement. Some companies do send officers and top middle management teams to recruit on campus, especially at the top Graduate Schools. Many major accounting and law firms also send partners out recruiting, but most companies still do not give college recruiting the attention it deserves, at least, at the majority of colleges and universities.
Companies typically behave like a "swinging pendulum" when it comes to campus recruiting. When the economy slows down a bit, they hate to bother visiting the campuses. A little "flak" from the University Placement Director about their conspicuous absence one year and they will surely be back the next, even if they have no intentions of hiring. Companies cannot afford to alienate the Placement Directors for fear of the upcoming boom years-when they really need to achieve substantial hiring.
Now, the most specific suggestion to upcoming graduates is to conduct your own job campaign, while simultaneously scheduling interviews with visiting employers on campus. Use the campus interviews, for the most part, as practice for the interviews you obtain on your own. Eliminate being exhibited like livestock. You will accomplish this when you select, screen, and approach the companies on your own terms. It is a lot better calling up the Engineering Manager of a company and pitching your background over the telephone, than to wait a couple of months for him to send the campus recruiter who will compare you with dozens of other candidates, all of whom he hardly remembers! The best thing that could happen in that instance is that the college recruiter might recommend you to be interviewed further by the Engineering Manager.
By either sending a first class resume accompanied by an appropriate cover letter, or by a telephone call directly to the appropriate department manager, you can capture his undivided attention. Subsequently, you will be evaluated on your own merits- without all the unnecessary college recruiting competition. Quite possibly, you could receive a job offer even before they hit your college campus!
Some companies should be sent resumes, while others you could approach by phone. Use the same criteria for your company selection as was discussed earlier.
There is a lot to be said for the retailers who say, "Avoid the rush, do your shopping early."
Big Companies or Small
Although there are obvious advantages to both big and small companies, there is no doubt in my mind, that unless a graduate's father owns a small company, he or she should head straight for the big one.
The reason that a large company is the place to begin one's career is primarily the training. Traditionally, in almost every industry, the big companies have the best training programs for career development. What frequently happens is that the fresh graduates will join the big companies, obtain their valuable training, and then get recruited by a smaller company at a substantially higher salary, in a substantially higher position. What will happen is that the smaller companies will pay a premium for the training which has been gained working for the big companies. The small companies cannot economically afford these training programs, so they let the big companies do their training.
Unfortunately, the reverse is not usually true. Big companies grow their own management. Very rarely will a big company go to the outside to hire at middle management or higher-unless there are some very special circumstances. And if they did, they would most likely go first to another big company to find their candidate. This is the advantage of having a significant depth of management talent.
If one joins a small company after graduating from college, remains there a few years, and then decides he or she wants to join a big company-it is difficult! To be more precise, it is difficult to join a big company at middle management or higher. If you have not stayed with the small company too long, you can always start all over at the bottom of the ladder with some large company. Who wants to do this? So, if you are "sitting on the fence" regarding whether to accept an offer from a big company or small one, go with the big one! You can always change your mind in later years, and some small company will then gladly pay for the prestige and training you have received while working for the big company.
Starting Salaries
There are, basically, two essential ingredients for a fresh graduate to command the top starting salary in any given year. The first is to graduate from a "big name" university, and the other is to graduate near the top of your class at that "big name" university.
The lesser the name the school, and the lower your class rank, then traditionally the lower your starting salary.
It is interesting to notice that starting salaries for many categories of college graduates have been increasing at pretty close to ten percent a year for the last few years or so. This means that today's college graduates are starting out not too much less than what the typical graduate of a few years ago is presently earning! The old saying, "if you want to make more money-stay in school" is in many cases literally true.
Is an MBA Worth The Effort?
In general, absolutely yes - especially with the larger companies. You not only start out at approximately a fifty percent higher salary, but your rate of growth is also accelerated. In fact, many companies have two "hiring tracks." One for MBAs, where they hopefully will progress rapidly and receive correlating salary increases. Secondly, there is the regular program for B.S. Degrees, where they traditionally "plod" along. They plod along that is, until they wake up and go to a top evening MBA program at the company's expense. Upon completion, they either get promoted, or get recruited away! It is a "caste" system. If you want to rise within the system, then you must take the necessary steps to elevate yourself. You must make things happen-they will not happen by simply wishing.
