Differing levels of financial success

College senior Gautam Rajpal wants to pursue a career in healthcare and finance. But the Biology major, who has taken over half a dozen business-related classes in his college career, is a little worried about next year. "The problem is competing with Wharton kids for a finance job," Rajpal said. Rajpal is not alone in this difficulty. Like many other seniors, he is discovering that the financial job hunt is much harder for Penn kids without the name "Wharton" on their resume. Careers in financial services and consulting were the top two choices for students in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School, according to a survey of the Class of 1999 conducted by the University's Career Services office. Yet while 1999 graduates from both schools shared similar job preferences, the surveys indicate that College students who pursued jobs in certain business-related areas received, on average, lower starting salaries and fewer job interviews than their Wharton counterparts. Rajpal experienced this difficulty to a lesser extent last year. As a junior, Rajpal did not find success with the On-Campus Recruiting Services internship resume drop, a Career Services resource in which students submit their resumes to various large companies among a large pool of other Penn applicants. Though Rajpal "dropped" roughly 20 copies of his resume, he did not receive a single request for an interview. And though Rajpal is optimistic about his OCRS resume drop for this year, his past experience raises many questions. "I want to make money too," he explained. But the numbers indicate that he probably won't make as much money as the Whartonites. Average starting salaries in several types of consulting jobs had differences ranging from 5 to 10 percent between Wharton and College students. In 1999, Wharton and College grads who entered research consulting earned on average $39,375 and $35,730, respectively -- about a 10 percent difference. In addition, 1999 Wharton grads in the field of management/strategy consulting received an average starting salary of $47,222. But 1999 College graduates who entered the same field saw only $43,194, approximately 9 percent percent less. And 1999 Wharton graduates who entered technical/information systems consulting received an average starting salary 5.4 percent higher than their College counterparts. The statistics differ even for getting interviews for jobs through Career Services On-Campus Recruiting. Wharton graduates who participated in OCRS recruiting two years ago received an average of 15 first round interviews, while College students of the same year received only 9.5. Still, Career Services insists that similar resources are available for both schools and that College students are not struggling. Peggy Curchack, the Career Services associate director who works with College students, also said that a comparison of OCRS interviews is impossible to do because it is unclear as to which types of students were competing for particular interview slots. "We need to be very careful about drawing inferences that may or may not be there," Curchack said. Curchack pointed out that the number of of College graduates entering the consulting field has risen from 6 percent in 1991 to nearly 21 percent in 1999. In addition, whereas the 1999 average Wharton grad salary increased by 1.2 percent since 1998, the average College grad salary increased by over 6 percent. "Those liberal arts students who make themselves competitive to the business community are extraordinarily successful in using OCRS," Curchack said. "All firms seem to be interested in top talent regardless of where it comes from and in drawing students from across this University," she added. Barbara Hewitt, associate director for Career Services in the Wharton/Engineering department, agreed. "As long as [College students] are showing interest [in business], they are not at a disadvantage," she said. Tarek Jallad, an Economics major in the College, said College students can be successful. "Banks have realized that Wharton are the most prepared; however [finance] jobs require a sort of intelligence that any person can possess," he said. Last summer, Jallad worked as one of eight Penn students at the investment and merchant bank Donaldson, Luftkin and Jenrette. He was the only College student; the other seven were from Wharton. "The financial services are in need of smart people regardless of whether they have done business as an undergraduate," Jallad said. But he added, "There still is a bias towards recruiting Wharton students." Career Services provides similar resources to both College and Wharton students, with individual counseling, OCRS, resume books and various interview and resume writing workshops. In the upcoming weeks, there will be a career fair on October 6 geared toward seniors seeking permanent positions in business and an interview workshop on October 17 called "Interviewing: the Employer's Perspective."