Resources for Virginia Tech Employers

Are you ready to hire a Hokie? Check out the resources below to get started! If you have any additional, or unanswered, questions, please contact out Employer Engagement and Recruitment Services staff.

No endorsement of employing organizations is expressed or implied

Career and Professional Development at Virginia Tech provides and supports opportunities for students to explore and pursue a wide variety of career options. Among the opportunities afforded students are job postings, recruitment visits, and career fairs, all of which bring hundreds of prospective employers — including for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, and government agencies — to campus each year. Most of the career fairs on campus are sponsored and hosted by academic colleges and departments, or by student organizations, at Virginia Tech. Career and Professional Development advertises these events and helps to prepare students to learn the job search skills to be successful at these events. Career and Professional Development also hosts prospective employers in our facilities throughout the academic year so that these employers can conduct interviews with students through the On Campus Interviewing program, and Career and Professional Development enables employers to post jobs for students through Handshake.

Providing space for prospective employers on our public campus, and enabling employers to post jobs, does not imply an endorsement of the missions or activities of any visiting or posting organization. As an academic institution, we strongly encourage students to research information and options in order to make informed employment choices.

Jobs in the marijuana/cannabis industry: Virginia Tech will not approve job opportunities, (job postings or on-campus interviewing), for employers involved in the manufacturing, distribution, or possession of marijuana or the marijuana industry.

Expectations of employers

Employing organizations that recruit Virginia Tech students are expected to follow the Principles for Ethical Professional Practice established by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

Students who believe an employer has not acted in accordance with professional standards in the job search process are asked to please contact us to discuss the matter.

Expectations of students

Career and Professional Development expects students who are conducting a job search — whether for an internship, cooperative education position, or post-graduation position — to conduct themselves in an ethical and responsible manner.

Specifically:

  • Students should attend scheduled interviews.
  • Students should never use a real interview for practice.
  • Students should not renege after accepting an employment offer.

For more information, see the Cancellation and Missed Interview policy and the ethical issues related to accepting a job offer.

More about never using a real interview for the purpose of practice:

  • Students should apply for positions and employers that truly interest you. 
  • Never sign up for a real interview for the purpose of practice. 
  • Your practice should occur before the real interview, and we offer practice interviews. 
  • Employers spend thousands of dollars each year to send recruiters to campus to interview students, with each recruiter being able to interview 10-13 students in one day. 
  • Employers can tell if you are not genuinely interested, and they consider this an abuse of their time. 
  • A student who does not have a real interest in that position/employer is stealing that interview slot from another student who is truly interested. 

Employers who believe a student has not acted in accordance with these expectations are asked to please contact us.

Contact for students and employers relating to this policy

Mr. Jim Henderson
Director, Employer Engagement and Recruitment Services
jim.henderson@vt.edu
540-231-8079

Employers are always seeking ways to increase their visibility and brand on campus.  As an employer your goal should be to create a strong brand among our students. Posting jobs and participating in career fairs are important but being part of the campus and engaging with Virginia Tech students is key to building a strong brand on campus. By developing a strong, recognizable, and engaging employer brand you will create an effective and successful recruitment strategy at Virginia Tech. We are eager to assist you in developing your employer brand.

Your organization, through your representatives, should develop relationships with our office, with faculty, and with students, and maintain a consistent presence on campus. Some ways you can develop and maintain those relationships are:

·         Participate in career fairs, on-campus interviews, and other industry events as they occur.

·         Offer to host/sponsor student organization meetings and events.

·         Sponsor student capstone/senior projects.

·         Participate in employer panels/presentations hosted by Career and Professional Development, departments, or student organizations.

·         Seek out opportunities to connect with faculty to participate in classroom presentations and/or lectures.

Whenever your representatives are on campus and participating in various events you are creating a touchpoint that will prove to increase your relationship with faculty, students and Career and Professional Development.

While not all employers have a recruiting strategy that includes visiting college campuses, recruiting on Virginia Tech’s campus will benefit your hiring efforts. 

When thinking about your organizational hiring strategy, consider how you might include goals to focus on engaging students throughout the year. One suggestion is to develop a communication strategy for re-engaging with those students you have met while at a career fair, hosting an information session, or participating in our On-Campus Interviewing Program. Students appreciate hearing from employers who continue to show interest even when they are not actively recruiting.

Below are some suggestions we have for connecting with Virginia Tech students!

  • Connect with faculty who align with your organizational needs.
  • Create an ambassador program using current interns/co-op students to tell your organization story when they are on campus.
  • Invite individual students to attend your career fairs, information sessions, etc.  (Use Handshake, networking opportunities, classroom presentations, etc. to identify those students).
  • Participate in the Cooperative Education and Internship Program.
  • There are over 800 student organizations on campus.  Reach out to student organizations/sponsor a student organization meeting.
  • Schedule an information session, which could be on campus or virtual.
  • Use Handshake to search for students who might meet your employment needs, review student profiles and send personal messages to those students.

As employers continue to look for ways to connect with Virginia Tech students both while on campus and virtually, our employer relations staff are happy to discuss opportunities to reach out to students. We encourage you to contact us.   

If you and other members of your recruiting team would like to schedule meetings with various individuals and groups — such as with our staff in Career and Professional Development, with academic faculty and advisors, and with student organizations — we are happy to assist you with advance arrangements and advise you on timing of meetings. We can advise you on choosing a format, whether virtual or in person. For more information, contact our employer engagement and recruitment services staff.

For your planning, you may be interested in:

We welcome the opportunity to make it easy for you to interview Virginia Tech students by providing on-campus coordination for you. The formal On-Campus Interviewing program enables employers to:

  • Schedule your interview date and connect it to your posted position(s); internships, cooperative education, and post-graduation jobs.
  • View resumes of candidates who apply for your job(s), and select candidates to interview.
  • Have ease of scheduling because your selected candidates will use Handshake to sign up for interview times to occur on your scheduled interview date.
  • Interview students who could be on campus or remote, so this serves as a screening interview before you incur travel expense bringing candidates to your location. 

On-campus interviewing scheduling and process:

We offer virtual and in-person options for conducting your interviews with Virginia Tech students:

  1. Both employer and student are in person at Smith Career Center.
  2. Employer is at the location of your choice, and student uses an interview room in Smith Career Center.
  3. Employer uses an interview room in Smith Career Center, and student is in a remote location.
  4. Both employer and student are in a remote location, not the Smith Career Center.

We encourage you to contact us to discuss which interview format(s) will best meet your needs.

The Smith Career Center location offers:

  • Interview rooms that are:
    • Comfortable and private.
    • Equipped with computers for video interviews.
    • Are available as a non-distracting location for students for video interviews.
  • A spacious waiting area for students where they check in for interviews.
  • A kiosk where you can see when your next interviewee has checked in.
  • An employer lounge area.
  • Employer relations staff available to assist you.

Scheduling ease through the formal program:

  • A key advantage of the formal program: You have the convenience that your selected students sign up for interview time slots via Handshake, so you do not have the logistic task of contacting each student to schedule each specific interview.

When interviews may occur:

  • Fall semester: Mid-September to mid-November.
  • Spring semester: Late January to late March.
  • On business days scheduled between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
  • If you wish to interview at other times, please see information below about the informal program.

When and how to schedule your interview dates:

  • You may reserve an interview date(s) as early as ten months in advance, starting in January for the academic year that begins the following fall. We encourage you to contact us at any time to discuss interview dates.
  • Request interviewing dates through Handshake or contact us. We are happy to assist you.
  • You also have the option to schedule an information session in connection with, and before, your interview date, to share information with multiple students and enable your one-on-one interview time to be spent more productively.

If the formal program does not meet your needs, the informal program enables you to:

  • Schedule interviews on shorter notice.
  • Interview during weeks outside the formal program schedule.
  • Build your own interview schedule.

To participate:

  • Collect resumes from students through means convenient to you, such as through Handshake, career fairs, meeting students at presentations to student groups, etc.
  • Contact us to establish an interview date. (If you need an interview room, we will provide interviewing space as available.)
  • Contact your selected students to establish your interview schedule.

  • Career and Professional Development endorses the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Principles for Ethical Professional Practice for career services and employment professionals. We ask employers to be aware of and voluntarily abide by the NACE Principles.
  • Cancellation and closing policy: if the university has any type of closing of facilities or operations, Career and Professional Development will follow the direction of the university.

Information sessions can be an effective part of your campus recruiting strategy. If you would like advice about whether and when to hold an information session, and choosing format, please contact our employer relations staff. We are happy to assist you.

Format for information sessions:

Tips for successful information sessions

  • When to conduct your information sessions:
    • Sessions held before the student application deadline to apply for your jobs will raise student awareness of your organization and increase the number of resumes you receive for your on-campus interviews.
    • Sessions held the day prior to your interviews will enable you to efficiently share information you want all your interviewees to know, and enable interview time to be spent more effectively. This may also help put your interviewees at ease.
  • Your presenter should know your organization very well, and be approachable, whether the session is virtual or in person. If the session is the first contact with your organization for students, your presenter will strongly influence students’ impressions.
  • We recommend that information sessions last no longer than one hour, including time for questions.
  • If in person, we encourage you to provide refreshments. Please contact us for recommendations for local caterers.
    Offering door prizes or give-aways can be a nice ice-breaker with students.

Scheduling and publicity

  • To schedule a virtual session, or an in-person in the Smith Career Center: contact our employer relations staff. Your session will be visible to students in Handshake.
  • If you wish to schedule an in-person session elsewhere on campus: contact Virginia Tech Event Services who will assist you; that office will then notify Career and Professional Development of your arrangements, and your information session can be listed in Handshake.
  • If you schedule an in-person session at an off-campus location: please contact our employer relations staff if you would like your event listed in Handshake.
  • You may wish to actively invite students through direct contact.

You may be interested in involvment with our state, regional, and national professional associations that bring together university and college career development professionals and employment professionals focused on college student recruitment:

State:

  • Virginia Association of Colleges and Employers (VACE)
    Do you recruit in Virginia? If so, and you’re not already involved in VACE, we would welcome your participation — even if you’re not located in the Commonwealth. Many of our staff are and have been involved in leadership roles in VACE and have been VACE award-winners for our contributions. VACE is a great organization with excellent professional networking opportunities.

National:

Four independent regional associations:

University and CPD information sources:

  • The university determines opening or closing of physical buildings and operations. For status of operations on campus locations, see university status.
  • If the Blacksburg campus of the university is closed, Career and Professional Development is closed.
  • Career and Professional Development has occasional additional closings or adjustments to office operations and/or building hours. See Career and Professional Development (CPD) office hours for regular business hours, and planned closings for CPD or our physical facility.

Workshops, presentations

  • If university operations are closed on a campus location for any reason, any event scheduled to occur on that campus during that closing would not be held. For status of operations on campus locations, see university status.
  • If a specific, scheduled event is cancelled, this will be noted in the listing for that specific event. See our events page.

Career fairs

  • If university operations are closed, for any reason, any event scheduled to occur during that closing would not be held. For status of operations on campus locations, see university status.
  • Career fairs hosted by Career and Professional Development (CPD):
    If we cancel a career fair that we host, we will note this in the career fair listing, and will notify registered employers.
  • Virgina Tech career fairs NOT hosted by Career and Professional Development (CPD). Many fairs are hosted by a college, or a department, or a student organization, or a Virginia Tech alumni association chapter, and CPD has no control over those events. To learn about any possible cancellations or rescheduling, you should place reliance upon the information you receive from that event host and their event website; see Virgina Tech career fairs.
University Status

  • Methodology:
    • Take note. What are the data sources? What is the count of salaries that comprises a median or average?
  • Fees:
    • Students should NOT pay fees for salary data! Career and Professional Development advises students to use only free information sources.
    • Fee-based sources are usually intended for human resource professionals who need extensive data to determine salaries to offer.
    • For employers, we do not endorse any fee-based services. We do link to reports from NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (in which Career and Professional Development has membership). NACE provides more extensive salary reports to members, including fee-based reports. Employers can consider whether they wish to purchase NACE membership, and/or NACE fee-based reports.
  • Salary sources that ask you to give information:
    • Some salary sites ask you to enter information such as your job title, location, and the salary you were offered. Be aware of this, and make your own decision about whether you want to use those types of websites.
  • We provide salary data and links to other resources as a service to our students and to employers interested in recruiting Virginia Tech students.

Virginia Tech co-op and intern first-work-term wages of students enrolled in CEIP:

  • Students enrolled in the undergraduate Cooperative Education and Internship Program [CEIP], are asked to report their pay rate. See CEIP first work term wages. (This page is under construction.)
  • Please note that over a several year period:
    • Engineering majors have accounted for 82-92% of co-op enrollees.
    • Business majors have accounted for 5-13% of co-op enrollees.

National data:

Bachelor’s degrees / salary data from graduates for first jobs

  • CPD administers the first destination survey, asking new Virginia Tech graduates to report if employed or continuing education after the undergraduate degree. Grads who say they are employed or in military service are asked to tell their salary. 
  • We report the number and percent who respond, with salary data, for each year, in the First Destination Report, which includes:

Master’s and doctoral degrees / salary data from graduates

NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers has publications on compensation.

Career and Professional Development does not own or maintain the websites listed below, and we do not endorse any fee-based products or services listed here. Links are provided as a service to Virginia Tech students. We encourage students to use free services and information only. Fee-based services are generally for human resources professionals.

Government data sources:

Non-government data sources:

Financial management help for Virginia Tech students is provided by Hokie Wellness > for students > Financial Wellness.

For more assistance after viewing salary sources: