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 2024 OCR requests received by 9 a.m. EDT on May 28, 2024 will be considered in our first round of booking. After this date, requests will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note, September 20, 2024 is the last date to request a fall event.
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.
Diversity Hiring
Columbia Business School is a proud member of the Consortium as the 21st member school. Please contact the CMC if you would like to discuss your diversity hiring strategy, including for pre-MBA programs. The CMC partners with student affinity clubs such as Black Business Students Association (BBSA), Hispanic Business Association (HBA), Cluster Q (LGBTQ+), Veterans Club and Columbia Women in Business (CWiB). We also have relationships with diversity partner organizations such as Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), Toigo, Forté Foundation, and Reaching Out.
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
Oct 3-4...................................Rosh Hashanah
Oct 11......................Study Day/Yom Kippur
Oct 14-18................................................Exams
Nov 4..................................................Fall Break
Nov 5............................................Election Day
Nov 27-29.................................Thanksgiving
Dec 9-Jan 2.................Exams/Winter Break
Jan 20..................................M.L.K. Jr. Holiday
Mar 3-14......................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 2024
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 2024
Employers are limited to hosting three events (including virtual events) per class year, plus one diversity 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 3, 2024 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 23, 2024 First Year (1Y) Employer Events begin
- Employer representatives may not interact with 1Y students in any capacity from Sunday, August 18 through Monday, September 23, 2024. This includes any continuation of pre-matriculation recruiting activity. * Exception: employers participating in the Career Forum may interact with 1Y students only during the event, September 20, 11am-2pm.
Friday, September 20, 2024 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 Employer Event calendar and 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 14, 2025, 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
September/October Notes:
Unless noted, 2Y interviews may be any day at a mutually agreeable time that does not conflict with class (options must be provided);
2Y events must follow school event policies and date/time restrictions;
All lunchtime events (on-campus and virtual) must be held between 12:45pm-1:45pm and must be on campus (or virtual);
On-campus evening events only 6pm-7pm or 8pm-9pm;
Off-campus events only 8pm-9m
