Ready, Set, Go — Understanding the Engineering/CS Recruitment Cycle (hint it starts now)
Welcome to Fall Semester 2022. While Employers do recruit all year, there is a cycle to the college recruiting process. You may as well understand this and get ready. Large employers are more able to plan for or predict their hiring plans for the year. They commit to a number of college hires and interns yearly. They can then plan out their strategies to get the best and brightest students. Large companies will often make offers to a percentage of their summer interns for “permanent” jobs after graduation. They will then schedule on-campus visits, attendance at career fairs etc. They want to connect with the talent they need, increase name recognition, and generate interest in their company and the positions they need to fill. Industries such as Finance, Consulting, Engineering, and Tech are what are known as early hiring organizations. They are likely to be trying to fill as many roles as they can before December. Smaller and Start-up companies are likely to wait until the spring to recruit because they have fewer roles to fill and are less certain of funding or needs this far out.
Ready
What does this mean for you? If you are looking for jobs in these industries you need to be ready in August to be applying for opportunities that are posted and to talk with employers at career fairs, conferences, and networking events. Being ready means (at a minimum):
- Resume(s) targeted, updated and reviewed (Get resumes reviewed in daily Career Lab 12-2 in the Career Center or in Engineering Drop-ins Wed in SEC and Thursday in Cummings Center)
- A list of target companies
- Weekly time on your calendar booked to do career things
- Time spent contacting and talking to people who work or have worked at companies you are interested in (remember you are never asking for a job when networking)
Set
What should you “set up” to get the most out of the fall recruiting season? Make sure employers know you are interested.
- Update your Handshake profile
- Update your LinkedIn profile
- Set up Saved Searches (also known as Job Agents or Email Alerts) on Handshake and at your target companies
Go
- Go to the Tufts Fall Career Fair (Virtual on Handshake) –In person September 23 and Virtual September 30
- Go to the Engineering Career Fair Collaborative (joint event with Tufts, Harvard, Yale, MIT, BU, Olin) if you are an Engineer not looking for software positions – November 5
- Go to/Participate in Hackathons
- Go to Networking Events
- Consulting Networking Night (consulting companies like Engineers and Computer Scientists) – September 15
- WiT – Women in Technology Conference – Oct 1
- Computer Science Alumni Networking – October 19
Of course, being ready doesn’t guarantee a job by December but it does mean you will not miss any opportunities to apply.
