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ON-Campus Recruitment

The Career Advancement Center (CAC) welcomes employers to visit the campus to interact with SIPA students and promote their organizations. To take advantage of these services, please contact Patricia Macken, Director of Employer Relations, via email at [email protected] or telephone at 1 212-854-4654.

Employer Information Sessions

Employer information sessions provide valuable promotional visibility for your organization as well as the opportunity to meet talented SIPA students and learn about SIPA and its programs. You may send a senior executive, human resources representative, or SIPA alumna/us to present an on-campus information session. We encourage presenters to talk about their organization's history, culture, and organizational structure, as well as to describe typical graduate-level career paths and opportunities.

Information sessions are generally one hour in duration and are conducted by an employer representative. Presenters may use MS PowerPoint and are welcome to distribute informational brochures. Time is usually left over for a question and answer period at the conclusion of the session.

If you are interested in an employer information session, please contact Patricia Macken, Director of Employer Relations, via email at [email protected] or telephone at 1 212-854-4654.

Joint Information Sessions

All graduate schools within Columbia University are separate entities and operate their own career services offices with separate recruiting events. However, since students from Columbia's graduate schools often share similar interests and skill sets, joint information sessions with the schools of Business, Journalism, Law, Social Work, Public Health, or Education may be in the best interest of both students and employers.

If you would like students from another school to attend your SIPA information session, you must submit an invitation to that school and notify CAC. Likewise, if you invite SIPA students to attend a presentation at another school, you must submit an invitation to [email protected]. Please keep in mind that if there are any room or schedule changes for your presentation, you must contact all involved career services offices to notify staff of the changes.

On-Campus Interviews

On-campus interviews are the most convenient way for employers to interview multiple SIPA students. CAC will arrange interview rooms, assist you with interview scheduling, and provide recruiters with lunch at the Faculty House dining room, all at no cost to you.

Although arrangements may vary based on an employer's timeframe, the entire on-campus recruitment process usually takes four to six weeks. We will advertise your position to current SIPA students through our online system. Students will submit their applications to the system, which stores the submissions until your deadline. Upon this deadline, applications will be sent to you in one batch via email.

We generally suggest allowing a two week period for students to apply. You will be able to view the applications online at any time during the process with the username and password that CAC will provide to you. Once student applications are sent to you over e-mail after your deadline date, you will then have the ability to go into the system and indicate which students have been selected for interviews. Students can sign up electronically for a convenient interview time slot. If interested, please contact Patricia Macken, Director of Employer Relations, via email at [email protected] or telephone at 1 212-854-4654.

Recruiting Guidelines

CAC has created the following guidelines to help facilitate communication between your organization, SIPA students, and our office during the selection and interview process.

  • Please adhere to all deadlines. This will provide students with adequate time to submit resumes and sign up for an interview time slot.

  • At the conclusion of the first interview, please let the student know the date by which you will respond with further information regarding his or her candidacy. When making an offer, please establish a mutually satisfactory date by which the student must accept or decline.

  • Advise students of the procedures they must follow and your policy on reimbursement for travel, lodging, and meals.

  • We would also appreciate if you would share your hiring decisions with us, so that we may track the career progress of our students.

SIPA students are encouraged to only apply to those organizations whose hiring needs are congruent with their skills and interests. Students are urged to release offers they do not plan to accept. They have been told that reneging on offers is a serious breach of ethics. As a liaison between students and employers, CAC handles all issues involving behavior regarded as unprofessional. If any problem should arise, please direct your concerns to Meg Heenehan, Executive Director of CAC, via email at [email protected] or telephone at 1 212-854-6314.