Recruiting at Columbia Business School
The Career Management Center (CMC) looks forward to working with you for all of your hiring needs. Columbia Business School’s recruiting policies strive to provide a fair recruiting process for both employers and students. These policies apply to all employers that engage with the School regardless of whether recruiting takes place on or off campus or virtually. This applies to all employers who host presentations, engage with student clubs, and CBS Centers and Programs. Failure to abide by these policies may necessitate sanctions for the violating employer. The full recruiting policies can be found on our website at Recruit at CBS.
All Fall 2025 OCR requests received by 9 a.m. EDT on June 6, 2025 will be considered in our first round of booking. After this date, requests will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.
Academic Commitments
Students may not miss class, an exam, or academic commitments for interviews, recruiting events, or travel related to those activities. An employer’s inflexibility on this issue will be considered a violation of the School's recruiting policy.
While the CMC encourages the opportunity for diversity candidates to engage in early education and networking, students should be given the opportunity to interview along with their peers during the academic-year-prescribed campus timeline. Once a student matriculates at CBS, neither interviews nor offers, including fellowship offers, may be made prior to the earliest offer date.
International Employers
Global offices of U.S. domestic firms, as well as all international companies, will be held to the same recruiter policies and timeline as U.S. employers, unless pre-approved by the CMC.
Employer Events
Employer Blackout Dates
Sept 23-24...................................Rosh Hashanah
Oct 2......................Yom Kippur
Oct 13-17................................................Exams
Nov 3..................................................Fall Break
Nov 4............................................Election Day
Nov 26-28.................................Thanksgiving
Dec 8-Jan 3.................Exams/Winter Break
Jan 19..................................M.L.K. Jr. Holiday
Mar 9-20......................Exams/Spring Break
Formal & Informal Events
All formal and informal events, including those targeting student clubs, must be submitted through COIN for the CMC to ensure a conflict-free calendar. Examples of events include, and are not limited to; on-campus, off-campus, and virtual events, company information sessions, practice area and regional presentations, diversity events, office hours, coffee chats/meetings, social events, invite-only (closed) events, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, multi-school events, and all other networking events. All events are limited to a one-hour duration.
Summer Semester
January-term and EMBA students are in class over the summer and are available for information sessions and networking events for full-time opportunities.
Fall Semester
Employers are limited to hosting three events (including virtual events) per class year, plus one affinity event.
Events that Fall Under Policy
- Employer Information Sessions
- Practice Area Networking Events
- Social Events
- Invite-Only Events
Events Excluded from Policy
- Coffee Chats
- Multi-School & Multi-Firm Events
Both individual and small group coffee chats including informational interviews must be cleared through the CMC, and students must not be asked to miss class. It is recommended to follow event date and time guidelines to ensure a student does not have an academic conflict. We encourage employers to be flexible when offering students the opportunity to engage in coffee chats.
Additional Information
Different divisions (e.g., investment banking vs. asset management) or geographic offices within a company may qualify as separate entities for the purpose of this policy, and firms must receive prior approval from the CMC before planning an event.
*Employers may not host events, including informal networking, on blackout dates. No events during the exam period, including multi-school and/or virtual events will be marketed to students.
Tuesday, September 2, 2025, Second Year (2Y) Employer Events begin
- Employers may choose to host off-campus events prior to this date as long as they begin no earlier than 6:30pm. Events on or after this date must follow date and time guidelines.
Monday, September 15, 2025, First Year (1Y) Employer Events begin
- Employer representatives may not interact with 1Y students in any capacity from Sunday, August 17 until the evening of Monday, September 15, 2025. This includes any continuation of pre-matriculation recruiting activity.
Friday, September 19, 2025, Fall Career Forum (11am-2pm)
- Employers may participate in this event in lieu of holding a standalone event. No other company events may be booked during this time.
See the full policies
Interviews
Interview Calendar Notes
- 2Y offers, including return offers to summer interns, must be held open for at least three weeks from the date of the written offer. The CMC encourages employers to be flexible about extending this deadline so that students can make a well-considered decision on offers. Offers extended on or after February 13, 2026, must remain open for at least 7 calendar days from receipt of written offer.
- Students cannot be required to indicate acceptance of an offer until a written communication is received.
- Interviews may not take place during blackout dates.
- View the full policies