Policies & Guidelines

Guidelines & Principles for Recruiting at McCombs

McCombs Career Services adheres to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Principles for Professional Conduct. For more information, please visit the NACE Website.

Recruiters are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with NACE principals.  Any recruiter attempting to place “improper influence” on a student during his or her employment decision will be in violation of the NACE guidelines.  Acknowledgement to McCombs Career Services Recruiter Policies is required in order to participate in on-campus recruiting.

On-Campus Recruiting

On-Campus Recruiting provides assistance to employers who are recruiting current McCombs students (not alumni) for roles in their organizations. A typical on-campus recruiting (OCR) process requires 5 to 6 weeks and may include the following:

• Job posting
• On-line resume collections
• Candidate screening
  (Candidates are screened by criteria such as area of study, projected graduation date, etc.) 
• Room reservation requests for campus interviews in our facilities

Recruitment Guidelines 

On-campus recruiting opportunities are designed to place students in professional roles. To ensure that this goal is achieved, companies are expected to adhere to the following recruitment guidelines:

Alternate Web-Based Recruiting

If your job opportunity does not adhere to the guidelines listed above, please consider the McCombs Job Board and/or Access UT. These web-based recruitment tools offer access to current students and alumni who may be able to meet your hiring needs.

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 various career services offices across campus.

*** If you wish to recruit McCombs students and students from other colleges, Access UT will be best suited for your needs. In addition, you are allowed to post the same job position on different boards. However, please keep in mind, that multiple postings will increase data entry/recruiting management efforts.

Recruiting Outside of McCombs

McCombs Career Services allows you to effectively recruit students in the undergraduate and graduate programs of the business school. Conversely, students from other colleges (e.g., Natural Sciences, Liberal Arts, Communications, Engineering, etc.) are not most effectively reached by working exclusively through McCombs Career Services. 

Each college within The University of Texas at Austin has its own Career Services Department. These career services departments are dedicated to providing college-specific recruitment services to potential employers.  Please note that these departments 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 here.

Your recruiting needs may transcend the University’s decentralized career services framework.  To ensure that all students and employers are well served, please note the following:

• When you wish to recruit students from other colleges/schools, please let your Recruitment Support Specialist (RSS) know about your interest.
• Your RSS will contact the appropriate office(s) on your behalf.  Once contact has been initiated, the other college’s career services department will contact you.  They will help you develop a recruitment strategy for their student population.

Interviews

If you wish to include students from another college in your interview schedule, please consider the following:

In order to utilize the interview suites at McCombs, the candidates that you wish to interview must be composed of at least 75% business students. (If the interview schedule consists mainly of students from another college, that college will host the interviews in their facilities.)

Evening Events

If you would like to invite students from other colleges to your evening event, please let your RSS know about your interest. Once your RSS knows which college(s) you would like to involve, they will notify the career office from the other college 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, Symplicity.

Guidelines for Evening Events

• Mandatory information sessions are discouraged. Students may have classes (even in the evening) that conflict with planned sessions. If your session is “mandatory,” reasonable accommodation for students with academic conflicts is required.
• Employers are required to complete an Event Request Form as part of the scheduling process.
• If you are serving perishable food at your evening event, you will need to complete a Catering Form. Serving perishable food at on-campus events requires authorization by the University’s Environmental Health and Safety Office. (You may want to avoid complicated menus.) Please note that you will be responsible for making your own catering arrangements.  
• McCombs Career Services cannot waive room 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

Brief & Meet Sessions are sessions that provide general information to BBA, MPA, and MBA students. (Bachelor of Business Administration, Master in Professional Accounting, Master of Business Administration)

The McCombs School of Business has developed the following guidelines for conducting and promoting Brief & Meets in order to increase positive outcomes for students and employers. (These guidelines resulted from student and employer feedback.)

Other Considerations:

• To accommodate all of our recruiters, only one Brief & Meet Session will be scheduled per company division per semester.
• Sessions 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 work with you to ensure that your events avoid these conflicts.
• Companies can continue to hold information sessions on the night prior to their on-campus interviews. To distinguish these events from Brief & Meet sessions, they will be termed “night prior” sessions in the on-campus recruiting system. Only candidates that are on the interview schedule will be invited (unless otherwise specified).
• Due to the fact that there is considerable variation in the information sought across student populations, employers are discouraged from hosting multi-program events.
  * For example MBA Brief & Meet Sessions should only target MBAs (BBA/MPA students should not be invited to these sessions).
  * If an employer wishes to invite all student populations to a single event, the event still needs to meet the Brief & Meet scheduling guidelines listed previously.

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 to proctor the examination.
  (Employers will be solely responsible for scheduling students.)
• Testing occurs between the hours of 8am-5pm on Fridays.

Keep in mind that testing is subject to room availability. Rooms may be booked through your Recruitment Support Specialist.

Alternative Option

For a fee, the University’s DistanceEducationCenter (DEC) offers testing services.

• To make arrangements with the center, contact them at (512) 471-6030.
• Ask about discounted testing rates.
• Tests will be proctored by trained distance education center staff.

The center can accommodate a wide variety of exam formats. To utilize these services, employers need to send the exam, proctoring instructions, and payment information to the Distance Education center. (The Distance Education Center accepts cash, checks, credit cards, money orders).

Materials should be sent to:

Attn: 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

Room Reservations: Employers will be notified via email when they are allowed to send in requests for room reservations for on-campus interviews. (This notification is typically sent out in late spring for fall reservations and in early fall for spring reservations.) Your recruitment support specialist will inform you of potential date conflicts when you book your reservations.

1st Round Dates - Industry Limitation Policies

Employers should avoid scheduling first round interviews on Fridays to avoid potential conflict surrounding second round interviews. Firms within the same industry are likely to target the same pool of candidates.  For this reason, a limited number of similar firms are allowed to book interviews on a single day. Without this restriction, students and employers face non-resolvable schedule conflicts. (Based on historical trends, financial services and consulting firms are the industry sectors that are impacted the most by this restriction.) 

2nd Round Interview Policies
Employers are expected to communicate proposed dates for second round interviews to their Recruitment Support Specialist at least one week prior to the second round interview date. The advance notice must be given after the completion of the first interview. (Indication of a potential 2nd round interview, during the 1st round interview, is not considered advance notice.)  If an employer’s 2nd round interview interferes with a student's prior obligation (e.g. first-round interview, exam, etc.), employers are expected to offer the student an alternative date or time without negative consequence. If the second round interview is held off-campus, we ask that you give the students a minimum of 3 business days notice so they can arrange travel and manage conflicts.

Inclement Weather

In the event of severe weather conditions or other emergency situations, the McCombs School of Business may close. 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 make every effort to help you reschedule your events in a timely manner.

Offers

The start of the required offer timeline is determined by the date of the written offer letter. We request that employers notify Recruitment Services once students have accepted an offer.

Exploding Offers:

McCombs Career Services and NACE prohibit "exploding offers" resulting from on-campus recruiting.  An exploding offer requires a student to accept a job offer within a very short period of time or face having the offer rescinded or markedly diminished.  This paces undue pressure on a student, and as such, is viewed as inappropriate conduct.

Other Requirements for Employer Accountability

McCombs Career Services’ Code of Ethics for Students

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