Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62199
the Right Track Claire Miller, a graduate of The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business in Columbus and a member of the class of 2002, is one of many new BBAs who came to the party "after"—after Enron, after the plunge of the stock markets, after the fall of the tech sector and the rise of unemployment. She entered college during one of the best markets and graduated during one of the worst. Fortunately, Miller did not come to the party empty- handed. She was one of only ten students to participate in an exclusive e-business fellowship at AT&T. The Fortune 500 company created the fellowship in collaboration with five universities, including Ohio State; North Carolina State University in Raleigh; North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro; Miami University at Ohio; and Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Two stu- dents from each school spent eight weeks onsite in the midst of a major company reorganization, studying AT&T's oper- ations; then, they spent ten weeks working virtually from their home campuses. Eventually, they offered their recom- mendations on ways the company could improve its customer relations. By the end of the fellowship, two of what businesses want in their new hires. Now that the days of burgeoning budgets and soaring stock options have ended, corporations don't want to waste time and money hiring "potential." They want talent who can hit the ground running from the first day of employment; they want people who need little or no training and who already have a wealth of knowledge about the company's corporate culture. As a result, business students entering the job market must con- sider the possibility that they can no longer look for a job; they must look for the job for which they have already specif- ically trained and are ideally suited. Surprisingly, this development may be one upside to an oth- erwise down market. Employees with career management BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2003 the students, including Miller, had jobs at AT&T waiting for them after graduation, while two more returned as interns the following summer. Now a data net- work account consultant with the company, Miller says that she landed her job as a direct result of her undergraduate work with the company. "AT&T doesn't recruit at Ohio State, so I probably wouldn't have gotten the job if not for the fellowship. I had an advantage because I was aware of how AT&T worked and I knew the corporate mentality," she says. "That's the way it is nowadays. You've got to get your foot in the door as an intern and stay with the company. If you're not proven, it's really difficult to get the job you want." "Proven talent" may be the phrase that best describes by Tricia Bisoux illustrations by David Tillinghast 25