Second-Year Event Guidelines
Joint-Year or First-Year Event Guidelines
Career Fair
Off-Campus Events
Event Blackout Periods
Informational Interviews
RSVPs
Pre-Interview Dinners & Sell Days

Event Limit Policy

Fall Semester 2020: Companies are limited to hosting three events per class year, in addition to a single diversity event*. This applies to both on-campus and off-campus events.

• Examples of events that fall under this policy include: company information sessions, practice area networking events, social events, and invite-only dinners.
• Examples of events excluded from this policy include: coffee chats, multi-school events, multi-firm events, and online events.
• Different divisions (e.g. investment banking vs. asset management) or geographic offices within a company may qualify as separate entities for the purpose of this policy, but firms must receive prior approval from the CMC before planning an event.

*Companies may host multiple diversity events but individual students are not permitted to attend more than one diversity event of their choice.

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Second-Year Event Guidelines

Summer Semester 2020: The summer semester is a great time to host events for rising second-year students, especially for the ~200 students who entered in January 2020 for May 2021 graduation and did not participate in summer internship recruiting.

On-campus company events targeting second-year students begin Tuesday, September 1, 2020.

• On-campus corporate presentation events exclusively for second-year students may take place on specific dates from September 1 to October 12, and again from October 20 to December 8, 2020. Events must be no more than 60 minutes long and event blackout periods apply.
• Off-campus presentations and events may be held on Fridays, beginning September 4, 2020. All events, including those taking place off-campus, must be submitted through COIN in order for the CMC to ensure a conflict-free calendar.
• Invitation-only events must be be requested through COIN in order to avoid conflicts with other firms in your industry.
• See blackout periods below.

Joint-Year or First-Year Event Guidelines

• No events involving first-year students may take place before September 29, 2020, on or off campus. Company representatives may not meet with first-year students in any capacity between Monday, August 17, 2020 and Monday, September 28, 2020..
• Corporate presentations targeting both class years or only first-year students may be scheduled on specific dates from September 29 to October 12, and again from October 22 to December 8, 2020. Events must be no more than 60 minutes long and event blackout periods apply.
• Off-campus presentations and events including first-year students may be held on Fridays beginning October 9, 2020.
• Off-campus invitation-only events may take place any evening after 6:30 p.m. between November 5 and December 8, 2020 (except during blackout periods). All events must be submitted through COIN in order for the CMC to ensure a conflict-free calendar.
• Companies may request only one invitation-only event of any size during the off-campus evening event period.
• Breakfast events are allowed any day on campus from 7:30-8:30am; off-campus breakfast events are allowed on Fridays only.
• See blackout periods below.

Career Fair

The Career Fair is for companies that are new to recruiting at Columbia Business School or have not generated a high number of attendees at past events. Additionally, companies that don’t typically participate in on-campus recruiting are invited to attend as well. The Career Fair will be in lieu of a standalone corporate presentation and will allow companies to meet with a larger number of candidates earlier in the recruiting season.

The Career Fair will be September 25 from 11:00a.m. - 2:00 p.m. ET. Requests to participate in the Career Fair can be made through COIN.

Off-Campus Events

• Events held off campus, including dinners and cocktail receptions, must be approved by the CMC so that event dates are not overbooked.
• Firms may plan one invitation-only off-campus evening event between November 5 and December 8, 2020, excluding blackout dates. These events will take place from 6:30–8:00 p.m. or 8:30–10:00 p.m.
• Day-in-the-life events should not exceed 120 minutes. Based on repeated feedback, candidates and companies find events that last longer to be counterproductive.
• The CMC encourages firms to hold off-campus events near campus whenever possible. A list of neighborhood venues is available upon request.
• The CMC cannot guarantee any conflict-free times for invitation-only events not scheduled through COIN. Every effort is made to avoid conflicts within industries and functions.
• See blackout periods below.

Event Blackout Periods

Companies may not host events, including informal networking, on blackout dates as follows:

• Independence Day holiday July 3–6
• Midterm exams July 7–8
• Labor Day September 7
• Yom Kippur September 28
• Midterm exams October 13–19 — full-time interviews allowed
• Election Day holiday October 30–November 3
• Thanksgiving holiday November 25 - November 27
• Study Days/Final Exams December 9–18
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day January 18
• No on-campus recruiting January 19
• Midterm exams March 9–12
• Spring break March 15–19
• Final exams May 4–14
• Commencement May 19

Informational Interviews

Feedback from corporate representatives, students, and faculty members indicates that student visits to corporate offices are best kept to a minimum.

Since repeated student visits to firms are disruptive to both classes and the workplace, companies are encouraged to streamline the informational-interview process and limit visits to each firm to one or two visits per student.

Best Practice: Announce your informational-interview policy at your firmwide event and inform the CMC to help publicize it.

RSVPs

RSVPs for events planned by the CMC may be captured in COIN. Be advised that all venues have capacity limits.
For catering purposes, it is advisable to reduce RSVP numbers by 25 percent.

By assisting companies with RSVPs, Columbia Business School and the Career Management Center take no responsibility for compliance with University, federal, state, or city laws including those involving venue capacity.

Pre-interview Dinners & Sell Days

Pre-interview dinners are generally not allowed. Exceptions may be made for companies outside the tri-state area. Please consult Nadege Jean-Romain or your account manager about your company's circumstances.

Sell Days should never conflict with academic commitments and are therefore best held on Fridays or Saturdays. Additionally, firms may not invite students to sell days or other post interview events until after offers are extended.