The University of Florida gives recruiters room to pitch to students. But some blue-ribbon firms shun college placement offices and career fairs altogether. Eager to get on the inside track with certain professors, some firms give them the proverbial grand tour. Walt Disney Imagineering takes some to its theme parks. Their approach is to go to the professors and get involved with students that way.
Circumstances force some employers to rely on school contacts.
Some firms cannot afford on-campus recruiting or exhibiting at career fairs, and so they try to bypass college placement offices by advertising on the Internet, only to end up frustrated. Looking for unpaid interns, Valdis Smits, president of a two-person architectural firm in Watertown, Mass., says he went back to using college placement offices after failing to get any responses on line at Rising Star Internships. But other firms get more than they bargained for when posting on line. Blach Construction Co. turned to its younger employees for help. With plans to hire three entry-level project engineers in coming months, the firm now relies on employees to leverage personal ties with local professors and graduating students.