Subject: Re: Hiring Practices for Summer Interns
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 13:00:00 -0700 (PDT)

Charlene,

Thanks for the email.  I have talked with Sally several times on this last 
couple of days and I understand that OU has a different recruiting schedule 
then other schools.  Enron is on campus for recruiting in the near future and 
I have asked Sally to tag on some interviews for summer interns while on that 
trip.  I believe that she has been able to schedule this so I believe that 
from an OU perspective it may be a mute point now.  Doing that should be able 
to maintain the momentum that we have developed at OU and all the work Lexi 
has done.  By the way, the recruiting trip a couple of weeks ago was very 
successful.

If you have any other questions or comments please let me know.

mike

Charlene Jackson@ENRON
10/05/2000 06:34 AM
To: Sally Beck/HOU/ECT@ECT
cc: Celeste Roberts/HOU/ECT@ECT, Richard Causey/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Mike 
McConnell/HOU/ECT@ECT 
Subject: Re: Hiring Practices for Summer Interns  

Sally,

Thanks for the e-mail regarding summer interns.  I apologize that Lexi and 
Shelly were unable to provide you with the answers you were seeking.  I wish 
that you had contacted either Celeste or me to indicate that you were having 
difficulty.  I have personally assured you on several occasions that I was 
available to either speak with you or meet with you if for some reason any 
member of my staff was not responsive.  That being said please allow me to 
explain the recruiting strategy since I was instrumental in helping to set it.

You are absolutely correct.  It is great to do market research if time 
permits or it is regarding an issue of which we have little knowledge.  As 
you are aware, over the past year we have engaged a professional recruiting 
firm (Brecker & Merryman) who has assisted us in a number of different market 
research projects.  However, in my opinion, this issue is not one that 
required much research.  I have been involved in recruiting in some way, 
shape or form at both the graduate and undergraduate level for the past 10 
years.  Most major organizations, with the exception of the Accounting firms, 
begin the summer intern recruiting process in early spring.  There are 
actually some universities that do not allow recruitment of summer interns 
until after a certain date, particularly in the MBA programs.  For example, 
Harvard does not allow an organization to come on campus and speak to first 
year students until January.  As indicated, the firms that generally recruit 
in the fall are the Accounting firms and they are primarily recruiting for 
"spring" internships.

The recruiting strategy at Enron is no different this year than it was last 
year with respect to summer interns.   Presentations were made in January & 
February and offers were made in February and March.  The only school that 
did not follow the normal process was OU under the direction of George Hope.  
We did, of course, recruit summer interns in the fall for the tax group 
because they are competing directly with the Accounting Firms.

Utilizing this strategy did not impair Enron,s ability to hire quality summer 
interns.  This past summer Enron had 76 summer Analysts (undergraduate) and 
40 summer Associates (graduate).  We intentionally limited the number of 
summer hires to ensure that the individuals hired received meaningful 
assignments.  Approximately 85% of these individuals received permanent 
offers to join Enron.   

The reason Enron has not had a problem recruiting quality undergraduate 
summer interns is primarily because many organizations do not hire 
undergraduates for summer positions.  They generally focus on MBAs, 
particularly the investment banks and consulting firms which are the firms 
that Jeff Skilling identifies as Enron's competitors.  Because the 
undergraduates are not actively recruited by our competition we have 
continued to have a special focus on these individuals (i.e. the reason there 
were 76 undergraduates and only 40 MBAs).

With respect to OU and UT specifically since those were the schools about 
which you raised a concern, let me address your concerns.  In your e-mail you 
indicated that you had research conducted at UT and OU.  You did not however, 
provide the results of the research or the person to whom they had spoken 
therefore I had Lexi Elliott contact both UT and OU.

While OU has not gotten back to her, following is the information obtained 
from UT.

o The contact at UT Career Services is Cindy Henson.  
o According to Cindy, approximately 5% of companies actively recruiting on 
campus conduct interviews in the fall for "summer" internships.  Cindy 
attributes  this to the fact that these companies cannot come in the spring, 
or, in the case of Andersen Consulting, have a tremendous need and conduct 
all interviews  at one time.  
o In conclusion, Cindy estimated that 95% of companies actively recruiting on 
campus recruit in the spring for summer internships.

We have not received information from OU therefore I am unable to provide the 
statistics at this time.  I will provide as soon as I am in receipt of such 
information.  

It appears that the information your source obtained is considerably 
different than what we were told.  If you would provide the name of the 
individual to whom they spoke I will follow up to determine the reason for 
the discrepancies.

While I understand your concern with respect to OU, they appear to be 
different than most of the other schools at which we recruit.  If you believe 
that it is critical to recruit summer interns at OU in the fall we are 
supportive; however, because Lexi has other school interviews that are 
already scheduled she will not be in a position to facilitate the interview 
process during the trip you have scheduled currently.  As you are aware, in 
most instances, the dates for presentations and interviews are dictated by 
the respective universities and were secured in early August. If you would 
like for her to try and secure an interview schedule for a later date this 
fall she can certainly work with your schedule and her current schedule to 
support your efforts.

I hope this has been helpful.  I can understand and appreciate your 
frustration if you are not getting answers from the recruiter or her 
manager.  Again, I offer that I am available and willing to work with you if 
you are having difficulty with members of the Program staff.  

Please let me know what you decide about recruiting this fall for summer 
interns and whether I can be of any additional assistance.

Charlene