Nuggets

We happened upon four pages of advice about corporate recruiting last month. For the past two winters, the people at Career and Employment Services (C.E.S.) have been soliciting for the juniors nuggets from the seniors who went through the employment recruiting program, and some of them are pure gold. There was a lot of sound, solid advice about preparing well for interviews, doing background research, and learning to use the facilities at C.E.S., but there was also a lot of collegiate candor, a little cynicism, and some out-and-out comedy.

"Don't do corporate recruiting," wrote one disillusioned senior. "It warps your values. Banks, computers, and advertisers are not all there is to life after Dartmouth." The best thing about going through recruiting was, according to a trenchant veteran, "job offers." Another senior responded that "meeting long-lost classmates while waiting for interviews" had been the best part of the process. Frustration, anxiety, and uncertainty were cited as some of the worst parts of recruiting, along with "the inevitable blow to the old ego every time you open a ding letter," "realizing that the world fails to await your arrival with open arms," and "being insulted for having an art background."

Some of the toughest interview questions reported were, "What do you think banking is?" and "Did you know my daughter — she was a Colby-Sawyer grad?" A request for an analysis of the international economic situation was also right up there, as was a demand for a philosophical disquisition on the single most exciting thing in life.

C.E.S. asked the seniors for humorous recollections as well, and some wondrous tales were told, the best of which was the story of a young hopeful whose alarm watch started playing "Edelweiss" just as Mr. U. S. Steel was introducing himself.

The questionnaire section on preparing for second interviews contained this exhortation: "Think up 3,000 answers to 'ls there anything else you'd like to know about our company?' The general comments part at the end produced this ingenuous praise for the recruiting program: "Corporate recruiting is a great asset to seniors. I think the registrar should give a course credit to anyone who has done it."

"Good luck," concluded one well-wisher. "And try always to keep things in perspective. The world doesn't end if Morgan Stanley fails to recognize your superior intellect."