EMPLOYER NEWSLETTER: Updates on Fall 2021 Recruiting

Thank you for your interest in engaging with and recruiting University of Pennsylvania students. We are pleased to offer you an invitation to reserve your 2021-2022 full-time and summer internships interview and employer information session dates with the University of Pennsylvania. We will begin accepting reservations on Tuesday, June 1, 2021, for interview dates and Tuesday, June 15, 2021, for employer information session dates, both beginning at 12:00 noon EDT.

The University recently announced its plans to open with in-person learning in the Fall and has mandated student vaccinations before returning to campus. However, we are still unsure of Penn’s policy for the fall regarding campus visitors and hosting larger gatherings. Since we know many employers need to start planning their fall schedules, we have decided to move forward with continuing all virtual employer engagement activities this fall. We are confident that we will be able to provide high quality interactions with our students and look forward to partnering with you.

If you haven’t already done so, please sign up for a Handshake account and connect with the University of Pennsylvania in order to request interview and employer information session dates, and to sign up for career fairs for the coming academic year.

Before submitting your date requests, please review our 2021-2022 Recruiting Deadlines Calendar for a complete listing of interview dates and recruiting deadlines.

Virtual Interview Schedules
We encourage employers to use Handshake for managing their interview schedules as it will provide maximum visibility to students for your opportunities and also allow students to easily manage their interviews. Reservations will be allocated to organizations on a time-stamped first-come, first-served basis and we will make every effort to accommodate your first choice date. In the event that a date you request is unavailable, we will assign you to the next available date. Employers who prefer to manage their own interview schedules should simply post their job or internship on Handshake rather than requesting an interview schedule.

Virtual Employer Information Sessions
Given the popularity of information sessions early in the semester, we are reserving August 31 – September 3rd for “Penn Only” information sessions which will need to be requested on Handshake and scheduled through Penn Career Services so that we can ensure that two sessions in the same industry will not be scheduled at the same time. We will open the calendar to multi-school information sessions scheduled after September 3rd. Employers will be able to add a link to their own software platform for students to access the session.

Virtual Career Fairs via the Handshake Platform
Career Services is offering several career fairs  this fall through the Handshake Virtual Career Fair platform which will allow for one-on-one video chats with students (both pre-scheduled and “day of”) as well as group sessions for up to 50 students. Registration is now open for the following fall career fairs:

CareerLink  (Newly expanded!)* – Friday, September 10th – 12:00 – 5:00pm EDT
*Employers who previously attended CareerFIRE (Finance, Insurance & Real Estate) are encouraged to attend this fair
Penn’s broadest career fair offering opportunities in Consulting, Communications, Consumer Products, Education, Finance, Insurance, Manufacturing, Marketing, Non-profits, Real Estate, Retail and more!

Engineering Career Day – Tuesday, September 14th – 12:00 – 5:00 pm EDT
An opportunity to recruit highly qualified candidates of all academic levels from our interdisciplinary and practice-oriented  School of Engineering & Applied Science as well as from our many other NSF-classified Stem disciplines across Penn’s twelve schools.

Bioscience & Research Career Fair – Thursday October 7th, 12:00 – 5:00pm EDT
An opportunity to connect with Penn’s population of students and postdocs with strong science and research skills. Attracts employers from a diverse range of industries and career fields including the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, consulting firms, science writing and publishing organizations, patent law and intellectual property firms, government and non-profit institutions, start-ups, policy think tanks, and more!

Online Masters in Computer & Information Technology Career Fair  – Tuesday, September 21st – 1:00 – 3:00pm EDT
Penn’s School of Engineering & Applied Science is excited to provide employers with the opportunity to connect with the Online Master of Computer and Information Technology (MCIT) student cohort in a virtual career fair. This fair is free to employer participants. To learn more about the MCIT Online degree program, check out their employer webpage.

Important Recruiting Dates to Remember
· Tuesday, August 31st – Friday, September 3rd: Virtual “Penn Only” employer information sessions for full-time and summer internship positions.
· September 4th: Approvals begin for multi-school information sessions for full-time and summer internship positions.
· Wednesday, September 22nd – Fall full-time and summer internship interviews begin.
· Tuesday, January 18, 2022 – Spring full-time and summer internship interviews begin.

Fees:
We are happy to announce there will no longer be any cost associated with on-campus interview schedules or information sessions. This decision is aligned with our decision to discontinue our employer sponsorship program ensuring that all employers have equal access to our students. There will, however, continue to be registration fees for career fairs with a low-cost option for nonprofit and government entities.

As we continue to navigate these all-virtual processes for hopefully just a little while longer, please know how much we appreciate your continued interest in recruiting Penn students. We are waiting to decide about whether spring recruiting will be all virtual but are hoping to pivot to at least a hybrid form. We will keep you updated in the upcoming months. Meanwhile, we look forward to working with you throughout the fall.

Sincerely,

Debra Koita
Recruiting Manager