Our Policies & Guidelines

Guiding Principles for Recruiting at McCombs

The McCombs Career Services subscribes to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Principles for Professional Conduct. While the McCombs Career Services has also instituted additional guidelines at the center to improve outcomes for all constituents, at a minimum recruiters are expected to behave in a manner that is consistent with NACE principles. For more information, please visit the NACE web site. Any recruiter attempting to place “improper influence” on students in making an employment decision will be considered to be in violation of NACE guidelines and operating outside the bounds of ethical recruiting practices.

Job Requirements for On Campus Recruiting

Many recruiters are interested in the center’s On-Campus Recruiting (OCR) Services. OCR provides a spectrum of services to assist employers recruit current McCombs students (not alumni) for roles in their organizations. A full-service (posting, screening and interview) OCR process typically requires 5 to 6 weeks from start to finish and can include the following:

• job posting
• candidate screening (based on degree requirements, work authorization and graduation time frames)
• online resume collections
• scheduling of on-campus interviews in our facilities
 

OCR recruiting activities align with the student’s academic time frames (fall and spring semesters). Typically candidates would not be available to start in roles until logical breaks in their academics.

The McCombs Career Services’ OCR opportunities are designed to help place students in professional roles in organizations. To ensure this goal is achieved, recruiting that is supported by the center should align with the following framework:

Compensation: For On-Campus Recruiting, roles should be salaried roles in the organization. Roles that have base salary, and also include some form of commission structure, are appropriate as long as the position offers the salary component for at least one year of employment. The McCombs Job Board or Access UT are alternative web-based recruiting tools that are available for roles that do not meet this requirement.

Position Type: Both full-time and internship recruitment opportunities are supported through the center. For internships, on-campus recruiting is typically designed to help companies recruit students for 40 hour per week roles that might last for 2 or more months. The McCombs Job Board or Access UT offer recruiters access to students who might be available for part-time positions.

Timing of Start Dates: On-campus recruiting is designed to help students be placed in either internships or full-time roles that align with academic time frames. Roles that do not align with academic breaks (fall, spring or summer semester end dates) may not be effectively served by on-campus recruiting. McCombs Job Board or Access UT also offers recruiters access to alumni who might be available to fill immediate needs.

Recruiting Outside of McCombs

As you may be aware, Career Services Offices at The University of Texas at Austin are decentralized to help recruiters make strong connections with their targeted student populations. The McCombs Career Services, for example, is the office that can help you most effectively recruit students in the BBA, MPA and MBA programs. Students from other colleges (e.g., Natural Sciences, Liberal Arts, Communications, Engineering, etc.) are not most effectively reached by working exclusively through the McCombs Career Services, as their colleges have career services offices and staff dedicated to providing college-specific student and Recruitment Services but do not have access to the McCombs Career Services’ online system. Information and links to each of UT’s career services offices can be found online.

As some employers’ recruiting needs transcend the University’s decentralized career services framework, we have worked with the other schools on campus to develop a service model to effectively support multi-college recruiting efforts. Many employers have already migrated to this model on their own as they recognize the value of involving the various career service offices in their efforts. To ensure that all students and employers are well served, we are officially implementing the following approach for multi-college recruiting efforts.

Here are the key elements of the approach:
 

• Please let your McCombs Career Services Recruiting Support Specialist know when you wish to recruit students from other colleges/schools. Once we know that you have a multi-school/college interest, we will contact the appropriate office(s) on your behalf to let them know of your interest in their students. Their recruiting support specialist will be in contact with you to help you to develop a plan to recruit students in their school.
• If you wish to set up full interview schedules from another school/colleges, those school/colleges will host those schedules in their facilities. The recruiting support specialist from the hosting colleges will work with us to make this happen as efficiently and seamlessly as possible.
• If you wish to set up mixed schedules, the McCombs Career Services Recruiting Support Specialist will work with the other offices to best accommodate those types of schedules. Note however, even on mixed schedules, McCombs students should predominate (>=75%) in schedules hosted at McCombs. Please consult with your Recruitment Support Specialist before you contact any non-McCombs students about how they should schedule interview times.
• When you schedule information sessions, please let us know if you would like these to be open and marketed to students from other colleges. Once we know which schools’ you would like to involve, we will notify the recruiting support specialists from the other colleges and ask them to promote the information to their students. Please Note: Students from other schools will not be able to RSVP in the McCombs Career Services online recruiting system.
   

Guidelines for Information Sessions

•  Mandatory information sessions are discouraged because students may have classes (even in the evening) that conflict with planned sessions. If your session is “mandatory” for consideration, the McCombs Career Services requires reasonable accommodation for students with academic conflicts.

• Employers are required to complete an Event Request Form as part of the scheduling process. Serving food at on-campus events requires previous authorization by the University’s Environmental Health and Safety Office. Because of this, you may want to avoid complicated menus. Catering is coordinated directly with your chosen food vendor.

• The McCombs Career Services cannot waive room use fees that may apply for campus facilities. To avoid charges, employers should utilize University Teaching Center (UTC) classrooms which can be reserved free of charge (subject to availability).
  
   

BBA, MPA and MBA Employer Sessions (Brief & Meets) – New Fall 2007

In an effort to foster outcomes for students and employers seeking to recruit BBA, MPA and MBAs, the McCombs School has developed new guidelines on conducting and promoting “Brief & Meet” sessions. These guidelines resulted from student and employer feedback about the volume of events and temporal conflicts that negatively effected outcomes in the past.

The new model – “Brief & Meet” Session
General information BBA, MPA and MBA sessions are being renamed “Brief & Meet” sessions to reflect a new format that we request companies use. The new format stems from student feedback on best practices at company sessions:
 

• First 30 minutes: Company presentation
• Second 30 minutes: Networking session which allows for personal interaction between recruiters and students

Scheduling Sessions
Monday – Tuesday – Wednesday Nights
To minimize student and company time conflicts, a limited number of “Brief & Meet” sessions will be scheduled per night. The one-hour sessions should be scheduled on-campus starting at either 5:30pm or 7:00pm.

Other Considerations:
 

• To accommodate all of our recruiters, only one "Brief & Meet" Session can be scheduled per company division per semester.
• Sessions will be held Monday through Thursday during the academic semester, but will not be scheduled on nights with significant BBA, MPA and MBA population conflicts (e.g., during MBA midterms, on Plus International Night, Career Week, etc.). The Recruitment Services team will ensure your events avoid these dates.
• Companies can continue to hold information sessions on the night prior to their on-campus interviews. The event description in the online recruiting system, which is where events get promoted to students, will invite candidates on the next day’s interview schedule to attend these types of sessions. To distinguish these events from Brief & Meet sessions, they will be termed “night prior” sessions in the system.
• Employers are discouraged from hosting multi-program events (all MBA/BBA/MPA students invited) as there is considerable variation in the information sought across the various student populations. MBA Brief & Meet Sessions should only target MBAs (BBA/MPA students will not be invited to these sessions). If an employer wishes to invite all populations to a single event, the event will need to work into the Brief & Meet scheduling requirements (temporal and volume restrictions apply).

Pre-Employment Testing

Employers may utilize McCombs Career Services facilities for pre-employment testing if the following applies:
 

• Testing is limited to Business students only

• Employers send a representative of their own to proctor the examination and are solely responsible for scheduling students

• Testing occurs between the hours of 8am-5pm on Fridays during the fall or spring semesters, subject to room availability. Rooms can be booked through your Recruitment Support Specialist.

Alternative Option: For a fee, the University’s Distance Education Center (DEC) offers testing services. To make arrangements with the center, contact (512) 471-6030. Ask about discounted testing rates that may apply. Tests will be proctored by trained distance education center staff. The center can accommodate a wide variety of exam formats and durations. To utilize these services, employers need to send the exam, proctoring instructions, and payment information (The Distance Education Center accepts cash, checks, credit cards, money orders). Materials should be sent to:
 

Amy Pro
The University of Texas at Austin
Distance Education Center Testing Center
3001 Lake Austin Blvd.
Austin, TX 78703
or
P.O. Box 7700
Austin, TX 78713-7700
If you have additional questions, please contact the Distance Education Center at (512) 471-6030.
 

Interview Timeframes - New fall 2006

1st Round Dates - Industry Limitation

As firms within the same industry are likely to target the same pool of candidates, a limited number of firms in the same industry can book interviews on campus on a single day. Without this restriction, an industry’s targeted student faces non-resolvable schedule conflicts that limit the ability for employers and students to meet. For most industries, this restriction will not be a limiting factor on their schedule date. Based on historical trends, financial service and consultancy firms are the most likely industry sectors to be impacted by this restriction.

Only once a semester is open for room reservations, can firms start to request dates. All employers will receive notification when they can reserve a date to come to campus. If a firm needs to change their interview date, they will need to move to a date where that industry is not at capacity limit.

2nd Round Interview Policies

If an employer’s on- or off-campus 2nd round interview date/time interferes with a student's first-round interview on campus, exam, or other valid conflict, employers are expected to offer the student an alternative date/time without negative consequence. Additionally, if the 2nd round interview is to be held off-campus, employers must give a minimum of 4 business days notice of a 2nd round interview invitation to the candidate. Indication of a potential date for 2nd round interview that is contingent on 1st round interview outcome does not constitute notice to the student.
 

Inclement Weather - New fall 2006

In the event of severe weather conditions or other emergency situations, the University may suspend normal operations and classes. The McCombs Career Services will close operations if the University closes for an emergency situation. We will make every reasonable effort to communicate closures to impacted parties as early as possible. The University’s home page will also reflect any closures of this nature as part of the University’s communication plan. Should a closure happen, we will also make every effort to help you reschedule impacted events in a timely manner.

Offers - Revised fall 2007

In accordance with NACE guidelines, students should be given a minimum of 3 weeks to consider any (i.e., full-time or internship) employment offer without offer consequence. The date posted on the written offer starts the offer window.

Full-time Offers:
All offers must remain open for a minimum of three weeks after the date of offer. Offers made after an internship, or made during fall recruiting (September – November), must remain open until the later of December 1st or three weeks after the date of offer.

Internship Offers:
Offers must remain open for a minimum of three weeks after the date of offer.

Other Requirements for Employer Accountability

• Employers that misrepresent employment opportunities to students will be restricted from using McCombs Career Services recruiting resources.

• We strongly discourage any employer from withdrawing offers of internships or full-time employment. This action could seriously damage a company’s reputation and effectiveness at the McCombs School of Business. If you must withdraw an offer, please contact the appropriate program’s Career Services Director immediately so that we can assist you in this difficult situation. If a student reneges on a written acceptance of employment, please notify one of the McCombs Career Services Directors. We recognize the importance of integrity in accepting an offer and would want the opportunity to follow up with the candidate.

• The McCombs Career Services cannot act in anyway to indemnify employers from employment liability.
   

Framework for Employer Recruiting Options

On-campus recruiting tools, AccessUT and the McCombs Job Board are designed to help companies recruit for professional, career-oriented positions. Postings should require candidates to be pursuing, or in possession of, an undergraduate or graduate university degrees. If your position does not align with this framework, Hire-a-Longhorn is a better recruiting resource.  Visit http://www.hirealonghorn.org for more information.
 

• Download the PDF version of Employer Recruiting Options

* Timing of recruiting activity versus academic calendar may influence which route is preferred. OCR is focused on fall and spring Semester Recruiting.

** Learn more about the offices across campus.

*** If you wish to recruit across all populations, AccessUT has the advantage of single point of entry. Alternatively, you could list positions in multiple settings. This however increases data entry/recruiting management efforts.

MCS Code of Ethics for Students

To learn about the center’s guidelines for student behavior, please review the MCS Code of Ethics.