Yesterday was Interview Day for the Business and Economics department. Interview Day is a chance for local companies to come and find potential employees or interns, and a chance for students to land a summer job, internship, or even career. Basically, it was an entire afternoon of speed dating. The event was open to seniors, juniors, and a few promising sophomores from the department, and any accounting, economic, or business oriented firm that wanted to come.
Most of the firms that came were local accounting firms. Companies like Bond Beebe, the Mergis Group, Salter, and many more came up from greater Baltimore or from the Washington area to search for new young help. A few companies made longer trips, most notably Novak Francella, who are based in Philadelphia but have offices on Wall Street.
For students, Interview Day is terrific. First, it gives us a chance to understand what interviews really entail. We are given a firsthand chance to learn what companies are looking for in young employees, without the enormous pressure of going to the firm itself and being grilled by 15 people for a couple hours. Instead we had interviews with anywhere from one to four people at a time, in a much more relaxed atmosphere that allowed our true qualities to shine even brighter. Afterwards, we had a dinner that allowed us to mingle with the interviewers, get tips for future interviews, and discuss which classes will help us most in the real world.
In all, I had 6 interviews in about 3 hours. I got 12 business cards, 4 recommendations of classes to take, and only 1 interview that went poorly. 2 of the firms I interviewed with were excellent, and I will certainly be doing follow up in order to try to land a job one day. In the end, Interview Day was tough, tiring, and fast, but it was a once in a lifetime experience.
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