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 companies and students and apply to all companies that engage with the School regardless of whether recruiting takes place on or off campus or virtually. This applies to all companies that post jobs and/or engage with student clubs, programs, and centers, as well. Failure to abide by these policies may necessitate sanctions for the violating company. The full recruiting policies can be found on our website at columbia.business.recruiting.
All Fall 2023 OCR requests received by 9 a.m. EDT on June 1, 2023 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 22, 2023 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 School 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+), Military in Business Association (MIBA) and Columbia Women in Business (CWiB). We also have relationships with diversity partner organizations such as Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), Toigo, Forte 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-proscribed campus timeline. Once a student matriculates to CBS, neither interviews nor offers, including fellowship offers, may be made prior to the earliest offer date.
We are happy to work with you on best practices for recruiting the diverse CBS community.
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.
Company Events
Company Blackout Dates
Sept 25...........................................Yom Kippur
Oct 13-20.........................Study Day/Exams
Nov 6-7..............................................Fall Break
Nov 22-24.................................Thanksgiving
Dec 8-Jan 22...........Exams/Winter Break/
1Y Interviews
Mar 1-15.................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 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 2023
Companies are limited to hosting three events (including virtual events) per class year, in addition to a diversity event.*
Events that Fall Under Policy
- Company Information Sessions
- Practice Area Networking Events
- Social Events
- Invite-Only Events
Events Excluded from Policy
- Coffee Chats
- Multi-School & Multi-Firm Events
Individual and small group coffee chats and 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 commitment. We encourage companies 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.
*Companies 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 5, 2023 2Y Company Events begin
- Companies 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.
Tuesday, September 26, 2023 1Y Company Events begin
- Company representatives may not interact with 1Y students in any capacity from Monday, August 21 through Monday, September 25, 2023. This includes any continuation of pre-matriculation recruiting activity.
Friday, September 29, 2023 Annual Fall Career Fair (11am-2pm)
- Companies may participate in this event in lieu of holding a standalone event. No other company events may be booked during this time.
Wednesday, November 1, 2023 Small Group Invitation-Only events begin
- Each company may host one small group invitation-only event between November 1 and December 7, 2023. No invitation-only events, formal or informal, inclusive of interview preparation, may take place after this date.
See the Company Event calendar and full policies at https://business.columbia.edu/recruiters/recruit-at-cbs/events
Interviews
Interview Calendar Notes
- Full-time offers, including those to summer interns, must be held open for at least three weeks from the date of the written offer, and 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 16, 2024, 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 at https://business.columbia.edu/recruiters/recruit-at-cbs/interviews
Notes:
Unless noted, full-time interviews any day/time 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;
Lunchtime events 12:45pm-1:45pm must be on campus;
On-campus evening events only 6pm-7pm or 8pm-9pm;
Off-campus events only 8pm-9pm
Notes:
Lunchtime events 12:45pm - 1:45pm must be on-campus;
Evening events (on or off campus) starting 11/1, including invite-only,
6:30pm-7:30pm or 8:30pm-9:30pm
