The Georgetown Career Education Center has reported a 31 percent decline in the number of on-campus interviews this past fall, as the tightening job market affects Georgetown students looking for summer internships and full-time employment.

According to Mike Schaub, executive director of the Career Education Center, 1,525 on-campus interviews were conducted this past fall, compared to 2,205 on-campus interviews in the fall of 2007.

“The drop in on-campus interviewing numbers is due to the economic downturn,” Schaub said in an e-mail. “Wall Street banks cut many full-time positions [and] thus did not need to hire as many seniors as they did in the past. Many other companies, including consulting firms, cut hiring because of market uncertainty. These companies do not want to over-hire.”

Despite these statistics, there was a slight increase in the number of employers who visited Georgetown for on-campus recruiting, with 115 employers visiting in fall 2008 and 110 employers visiting during fall 2007.

“The career center staff began our response to the economic downturn in the summer by enhancing our employer development efforts,” Schaub said. “These efforts account for the strong showing of employers this past fall despite the economic situation.”

According to Schaub, the career center contacted lesser-known employers, in addition to the companies that typically visit the university.

“The economic situation actually created an opportunity for smaller companies, and those that may not have targeted Georgetown in the past, to recruit talented Georgetown students,” Schaub said.

Schaub said that while finance and consulting have been hit hard by the recession, some industries, including health care and education, are still solid.

Some Georgetown students who were seeking internships on Wall Street found this year to be especially difficult, given the events that have transpired. Many investment banks were not able to hire as many interns and some cut their sophomore programs entirely.

“I was looking at a lot of investment banking internships throughout the fall, but obviously with the collapse of that industry, all that went by the wayside . you hear about all the people at Georgetown, regardless of school, getting afforded these opportunities, and all of a sudden now it’s not available,” D.J McLaughlin (SFS ’10) said. “It was extremely discouraging to apply for interview after interview and not get any calls.”

Christy Losier (MSB ’11) stated that she found securing a job as a sophomore through the career center’s Web site to be a challenge.

“Especially for sophomores, it’s really hard. I did use the career center Web site and probably more than half of the ones were only for juniors,” Losier said. “I had to instead work on personal contacts and not go through the school.”

Losier stated that she places most of the blame on the tightened job market. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent in March.

“I think people are more worried about saving their own jobs than helping out college sophomores and juniors,” Losier said. “The number of paid internships is down, and internships in general are down.”

cLaughlin said that he was surprised to see such a large drop in the number of interviews at a top-ranked university like Georgetown.

“I expected [numbers] to go down across the board . but I am very surprised to see the numbers drop so drastically,” McLaughlin said.

Some students have opted for summer jobs rather than unpaid internships.

“I’m going back to [be a] camp [counselor] to make money. A lot of internships in the D.C. area don’t pay that well, if at all,” Laura Shen (COL ’11) said.

This decline in on-campus recruiting has affected colleges and universities nationwide. The Harvard Crimson recently reported that recruiting fell 10 percent in the fall of 2008 and 19 percent this past spring.

“The economy’s sinking, and we weren’t surprised,” said Robin Mount, interim director of Harvard University’s Office of Career Services, to The Harvard Crimson.

The Yale Daily News reported similar statistics, citing an 18.3 percent drop in on-campus interviews for summer internships and a 10 percent decrease in interviews for full-time positions.

Yale University also saw an 8.8 percent decrease in the number of on-campus recruiters in the fall, according to The Yale Daily News.

Losier said that some employers have told her they recognize this year is a particularly difficult year for students to find internships.

“[The employers] were saying that they wouldn’t judge you [during your] junior year if you didn’t have an internship as a sophomore because they know it’s such a hard year,” she said.

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