Freeman Days New York attracts record number of employers

More than 300 Freeman students traveled to the Big Apple in September for Freeman Days New York, the Career Management Center’s annual networking and recruiting trip for students seeking jobs in New York City. This year’s event was the largest in history, with a record 92 companies hosting site visits and information sessions and taking part in networking opportunities.

The program kicked off on Sept. 19 at the Marriott Marquis Time Square with a series of career skills presentations as well as information sessions from ThomsonReuters, S&P Capital IQ/McGraw Hill Financial, Citigroup and Heart Publications. Capping off the day was the Freeman Days New York Alumni Networking Reception, an annual event that enables current students to mix, mingle and network with New York alumni.

The next morning students visited Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Grey Advertising, Gilt Group, Morgan Stanley and other firms, but the day’s biggest event took place on the floor of the Marriott's Grand Ballroom, where more than 80 companies met with students and collected resumes as part of two large Focused Networking sessions.

According to Peggy Babin, associate dean for external relations, the Career Management Center introduced the Focused Networking sessions this year to give more students access to more potential employers. In previous years, much of the networking activity during Freeman Days New York took place at company-sponsored site visits, which can accommodate only a limited number of students due to space constraints. This year, the Focused Networking format enabled hundreds students to get valuable face time with dozens of companies seeking recruits in one location.

“The response we got from both students and employers was just overwhelming,” says Babin. “Both students and companies said they really liked the opportunity to make so many connections in one location. We may tweak the format slightly, but we definitely plan to bring back Focused Networking for next year’s Freeman Days New York.”

Among the companies that took part in this year’s Freeman Days New York events were Accenture, American Express, Atlantic Records, Barclays, BlackRock, Buzzfeed, Coach, Cushman & Wakefield, JCrew, Ralph Lauren, Lazard Asset Management, Macy's, Moody's Investor's Service, Morgan Stanley, National Basketball Association, PricewaterhouseCoopers, UBS, Viacom, the Wall Street Journal and Time Warner Cable Media.

To see more photos from Freeman Days New York, visit the Freeman School’s Flickr page.