On the fourth floor of Scott Stadium, the luxury skyboxes that typically house suite-holders at football games are also home to the On-Grounds Interviewing program, through which job opportunities can come a-knockin’.
The program’s goal, according to Barbara Hampton, University associate director for employer services, is to consolidate the interview process for both employers and students by bringing them to a single location. Last year, representatives from just fewer than 400 companies conducted about 7,000 to 8,000 interviews, and 47 percent of these interviews were conducted by University alumni.
“It’s definitely convenient for the employers to come to the University and have an opportunity to meet with multiple candidates at the same time and decide who they want to invite to participate in the second round of the interview process at the organization,” Hampton said.
Fourth-year Commerce student Jason Liu has used the On-Grounds Interviewing program for the past two years.
“It provides a lot of good opportunities to meet employers ... [who] do have an interest in us, and it’s a good system to connect the two parties that are interested in each other,” Liu said, comparing the program to his other methods of applying to jobs in the past, which were “not very effective.”
Before a student can set up an interview, he or she must first create an account on CAVLink, an online resource that provides job listings for full-time positions, summer internships and externships, according to the 08-09 Hoos Career Guide, distributed by University Career Services. In addition to searching for potential job opportunities within CAVLink, students can also upload up to 25 documents — resumes, cover letters and other documents — to share with potential interviewers and view upcoming events such as career fairs.
“In terms of [how] CAVLink works, you drop in your resume, and you know exactly when you’ll have an interview or not,” fourth-year College student Sri Gopalan said. “Whereas if you drop it in a company’s Web site, it’s like a black hole — you’ll never know if someone is looking at it, but here, you know for sure.”
After creating a CAVLink account, a student must then attend a mandatory 30-minute orientation in order to qualify for the On-Grounds Interviewing program. He or she has the option of attending one of the group orientations, which concludes with a brief question-and-answer session, or completing the newly launched online version, followed by a brief quiz. The online orientation is available at the UCS computer lab Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“In the orientation, our main goal is to share with students how the process works from start to finish, what their rights and responsibilities are as participants in On-Grounds Interviewing and what to do as they’re preparing for interviews,” Hampton said.
The orientation stresses the program’s “No-Show” policy and even includes examples of unaccepted excuses for failing to show up for an interview, such as, “I cut myself shaving, and it won’t stop bleeding.”
“Barring hospitalization and major illnesses, it is important to attend [an interview], because employers actually travel here and spend a great deal of money in order to make a recruiting trip,” Hampton said. “We definitely want them to be pleased with the service and the students they meet throughout the day, so if they plan on meeting 13 students and only 5 show up, U.Va. suddenly takes a big dive in terms of how interested they are recruiting here in the future.”
After completing the orientation session, students are granted On-Grounds Interviewing access and can search for and apply for positions in the On-Grounds Interviewing as well as the non-On-Grounds Interviewing sections of CAVLink. The submission period for applications varies, depending on the employer, and can range from one week to several months.
Employers then evaluate the submitted applications and request an interview schedule — typically from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. — to meet with students. Students either are invited to be interviewed or are selected to be alternates and have a set period, which can be as few as two days, in which to choose an interview time slot.
“In some cases ... an employer can have up to 200 applications or more, and they may only have those 14 interview slots, so we definitely encourage students not to be discouraged if they’re not selected for interviews, just because it’s a competitive process,” Hampton said.
Hampton noted that about 10 to 15 percent of the students who use the On-Grounds Interviewing process ultimately obtain jobs from the program.
“I applied to 80 jobs and might have had around 10 interviews,” Liu said. “It depends on how selective the firm is, how the market is.”
With that in mind, Hampton emphasizes that students who sign up for an interview slot should be genuinely interested in working for that particular organization.
“We want students to participate in the process and get the most out of it ... [but not by] taking a time slot to practice their interviewing skills,” Hampton said, adding that UCS offers mock interviews to serve that purpose.
On the day of the interview, students can either park in the metered spaces in front of Bryant Hall or take the bus, which stops directly in front of the building, and then proceed to the fourth floor of the building.
After a few minutes in the student waiting area with “coffee, water, and a TV ... [to] try to help people work their nerves out a little bit before their interviews,” students are taken to one of the suites in which the interview will take place, Hampton said.
If a student is selected for the next round of interviewing, the employer will contact him or her directly. On-Grounds Interviewing’s role in the interview process ends once the student accepts an offer and withdraws all other applications. On-Grounds Interviewing runs from Sept. 22 through Dec. 5 in the fall semester and Feb. 2 to 26 during the spring semester, which also includes late recruiting after Spring Break through the middle of April.
“I think students should use [On-Grounds Interviewing] and explore it, because in my opinion, it’s the easiest way to find a job as a student here ... because you don’t need connections to get a job,” Liu said. “I think students should take full advantage of it; it’s one of the great resources that [the University] has, and it would be a shame if students didn’t take advantage of [it].”
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