The MBA Career Services office has unveiled its new web-based recruiting portal, HBS CareerLink, this fall. The much anticipated CareerLink has completely replaced the Job Bank and will be a “one-stop-shop” destination for all future on- and off-campus recruiting activities.
In addition to a completely new and improved user interface, the site offers a host of features that will make the recruiting process a snap. A key feature, much asked for by students, is the site’s ability to instantly “push” new job listings directly to your e-mail inbox, based on the job preferences you specify.
Career Services decided to move towards an entirely new recruiting website late last year when the department evaluated whether the existing Job Bank (already four years old) could evolve in the face of an overwhelming demand for advanced features. MBA Career Services had always enjoyed a technology edge over other schools, being among the first in the country to have an online Job Bank. But the legacy system just could not accommodate some of the progressive features the School wanted.
After an extensive selection process, Career Services chose Boston-based experience.com, a company with origins in the HBS Business Plan Competition, to provide a jobs portal for HBS. experience.com’s software, called eRecruiting, is already in use in over 150 universities and colleges, including Harvard University’s undergraduate career center. This past December, MBA Career Services conducted extensive “Beta Tests” of the new system, using panels of students, companies, and Career Services staff.
The most exciting benefit, perhaps, is that students will be able to receive instant announcements for job openings that match their desired criteria. These announcements are “pushed” directly from the database into the student’s email inbox. This “push” technology is also used to inform students of interview invitations as prospective employers extend them.
Sending cover letters and resumes has also never been easier. Found an opportunity you like? Just upload your cover letter and resume and click! The site will also tell you if the recruiter has viewed your resume and the portal will remind you of any job-specific deadlines.
CareerLink also features a richer search engine. Students can use the new job bank to search for any company’s contact information regardless of whether or not they have posted a current job opening (great for networked job searching!).
As for employers, they can now self-manage their job listings, replacing what has been largely a paper process that required correspondences to and data entry by Career Services. Any job openings, company profiles, and contact information can be instantly updated by the recruiting contacts. Companies will use the portal to centrally manage all of the cover letters and resumes uploaded by the students. The site also features a powerful scheduling tool for dynamically creating interview schedules as students accept them.
Perhaps the greatest benefit is that MBA Career Services will no longer need to enter and supervise the data in the job bank. This frees up more of the staff’s time to do what they do best: expanding the number of companies that recruit at HBS, running training and information sessions, one-on-one career counseling, and supporting career fairs and Treks.
