Bidding for Brains

You MIGHT BE 1-A, BUT YOU'RE A-l WITH Us cheered a recent Armstrong Cork recruiting ad in the University of Pittsburgh's Pitt News. The ingratiating pitch at Pitt was pretty much the corporate commencement address of 1967. In their never-ending need for skilled manpower, companies all over the country have been plying more graduates with more money than ever before. All in all, says the authoritative College Placement Council, this has been "the toughest, most competitive college-recruiting year in history."

Corporate headhunters have been descending on campuses with uncommon force and flair. Some 500 swarmed to Stanford University this year, as against 350 last season. At Michigan State, 2,500 companies, including many smaller businesses on the campus circuit for the first time, lined up to dicker with 5,000 prospects. With men in such short supply, the recruiting surge has intensified the search at female enclaves like Smith College, whose "vocational office" finds business better than ever.

Even the British came in force. Some 50 British corporations set up shop at Harvard Business School in their first concerted U.S. drive, which they call the "Brain Game of 1967."

The Dollar Factor. The supply of available graduates is stretched tighter than ever. One major reason is the high demand from the military. Many companies are now signing on people who are only weeks away from draft calls in the hope of getting them back after their two-year stint. Another factor in reducing the supply is that the number of students going on for graduate degrees is still increasing.

As demand intensifies, the prices go up. The Harvard Business School last week announced that its 648 new M.B.A.s had been hired at an average of $11,300 a year, as compared with $10,300 in 1966. According to the College Placement Council, the average starting salary for chemical engineers, last year's highest-paid group--at $682 a month--has risen to $733. Math and physics students are getting $698, compared with $648 in 1966. Even the $589 that lowly humanities students got was a brisk increase over last year's $547.

Theology & Public Relations. Continuing the pattern of recent years, graduates were keen on aerospace, electronics, chemical, oil and other hightechnology, high-growth companies. The oft-discussed student distaste for business, on the other hand, focused mainly on sales jobs. As a result, offers from food and beverage companies, merchandisers and insurance firms, got short shrift.

No employer found the pickings easy. Wringing its Esso tiger's tale once again, Houston's Humble Oil & Refining Co. sent heavily publicized "Tiger Teams" to 300 campuses, managed to fill a record quota of 825 jobs. But Ford deployed 340 recruiters to find 2,000 new graduates, figures to wind up with only 1,500 or so. Chicago's Inland Steel sweetened its 1966 salaries by as much as 8%, still fell so short of engineers that it began scouring Canadian campuses. Illinois Bell Telephone recruiters confess that "we even hired a theology student last month. He is going into public relations or the commercial end."

Looking ahead, it can be expected that the spiraling commencement competition will increase. Labor Department statistics watchers note that an unusual shortage of people in the 35-50 age bracket will occur between 1968 and 1976, reflecting the low birth rate of 1933-41. They figure that the dearth of middle-agers for middle management will raise the ante for young graduates still higher.

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