re : hiring practices for summer interns sally ,
thanks for the email and update . i agree that we must do something quickly
to resolve this . i believe that you should interview for summer interns as
an extension to your upcoming planned recruiting trip . i know you were very
happy with the summer interns from the energy management program at ou that
you got last year ( i was surprised and the school was thrilled that you
offered all 5 permanent positions upon graduation ) . we cant lose that
momentum . i am sure that each school ' s program is different and that most
don ' t interview for summer interns this early in the year but from what i
have learned about the ou schedule , we will lose all the top candidates if we
wait . i am sure that is not what charlene and celeste were trying to
accomplish with their guidelines .
please keep me up informed on this matter .
thanks and good luck with the students .
mike
enron north america corp .
from : sally beck 10 / 02 / 2000 07 : 13 pm
to : charlene jackson / corp / enron @ enron , celeste roberts / hou / ect @ ect
cc : richard causey / corp / enron @ enron , mike mcconnell / hou / ect @ ect
subject : hiring practices for summer interns
while recruiting on campus recently i became aware that a decision was made
at the program level to not interview this fall for 2001 summer interns . in
talking with students and faculty at the university of texas and university
of oklahoma , it became clear that there is concern over the feasibility of an
internship with enron , as other top firms will be recruiting this fall for
summer 2001 interns . i have communicated my concerns to lexi elliott and her
manager , shelley jones , and was told by both that the decision to delay
interviews for summer interns was made at a program level based on enron ' s
staffing . when i asked about the competitive data available regarding the
practice of other firms on summer intern interviews , i was even more
concerned to discover that neither lexi nor shelley had that data . it would
seem critical to know what the competition is doing in terms of summer intern
interview schedules in order to understand the risk that could be created for
enron by not interviewing this fall for these important feeder positions for
our analyst and associates programs .
i have had conversations over the last two weeks with lexi and shelley , with
no resolution . when they could not provide the competitive data to either
confirm or eliminate my concerns , i volunteered to have james scribner , a
senior director on my team , obtain this market information . lexi and shelley
either did not have the time to gather this data , or were not sure how to do
so . they were pleased to have some help in getting our hands on this
critical information . i now have information at hand with regard to firms
that will be recruiting at ut and ou this fall for summer intern positions .
and based on this information , i believe that enron is at risk for not hiring
top students as interns for the summer of 2001 if we do not interview for
these positions this fall .
while my research only touches on two of the schools at which enron recruits ,
i want to raise concern over this as a potential problem at many , if not all
campuses that we have targeted for recruiting . as administrators of the
program , you rely on the involvement of senior members of the company to
carry the enron message to campus . i believe that we also have an obligation
to make this a two - way messaging system . i strongly believe that we must
address this potential risk for enron extremely quickly , as teams will be on
campuses across the country to conduct interviews in a matter of days . i
suspect that many enron participants in the recruiting process are unaware of
the program ' s decision regarding the timing of interviews for summer
internships . in working with rick causey and mike mcconnell , executive
sponsors for ut and ou , respectively , they are as concerned as i about the
decision on interviewing summer interns . i have copied both of them on this
note to the two of you .
please let me know how this can be resolved . with the help of james scribner
and others , we have already compiled a list of students at ut and ou that
should be targeted for summer internships . i will offer as much of my time
as is feasible to work with staff members of the program to devise creative
ways to turn this around .