Minority Students Say They Prefer Internships and Corporate Campus Visits

Black Collegian, Oct 2004

MBAs and undergraduate students of color agree: Internship programs and on-campus presentations are activities that most positively influence their image of a company.

An undergraduate student from Washington University explained: "On-campus informational sessions are valuable because it provides additional information that written materials do not have." Preferences do however vary somewhat between the two student groups. For example, minority undergraduates emphasize the positive effect of good mentorship and co-op programs while their MBA peers get more excited when company CEOs visit their campus.

Comparing actual and ideal sources of information

Even though a majority of minority students believe an internship would be the best way to evaluate a potential employer, many also said they were realistic enough to understand that there would be differences between their ideal and actual information sources. Participating minority students would like, for example, the opportunity to gather information about employers in an interactive setting such as: on campus presentations, internships and career fairs. The opposite is true about television, published stories and advertising campaigns (please see graph for detailed comparisons).

The drive by companies to recognize which channels are most effective in attracting minority students is still in its infancy. "Attaching the right message to the appropriate channel is just as important when communicating with minority candidates," says Claudia Tattanelli, chief executive of Universum Communications, the Philadelphia-based corporate recruiting research and consulting firm. For example, when attending a company presentation, minority undergraduates want to hear about career development opportunities, training programs, salary and corporate culture while they prefer to read about company history, financial results and environmental policies on corporate websites. Students also have strong views about how companies should talk about diversity. "It's better to hear a company say that diversity in points of view is their goal, not just diversity of skin colors," one student from Brigham Young University said.