For the third year in a row, the Career Management Center at Cornell University's S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management has taken its search for corporate recruiters to new heights – approximately 30,000 feet in the air, to be exact. On March 31, the Johnson School held Just About Jobs III, a unique event in which the Johnson School flies recruiters to Ithaca on private jets to give second-year MBA students a wider variety of potential employment opportunities.

The purpose of Just About Jobs is to "reach out to new employers to expand our current recruiting base and, at the same time, to seed opportunities for students who are seeking employment," said Karin Ash, Ph.D. '99, director of the Johnson School's Career Management Center (CMC).

"The ultimate goal is to get recruiters in the industries and job functions where we see a need," said Kim Alexander, MBA '93, assistant director for employer outreach.

In the past, the businesses invited to participate were based in New York City, Boston and Chicago. This year, however, in keeping with the Johnson School's long-range-growth plan, event organizers selected businesses in and around San Francisco. Five recruiters were flown to campus, including representatives from Apple Computer, Franklin Templeton, Ubisoft and Gap.

Anne Cramer, MBA '01, was one of two Cornell graduates who participated as a recruiter in this year's event. According to Cramer, who works for Ubisoft, her company would never have considered sending recruiters to campus if it weren't for Just About Jobs. "It's hard to have any formalized recruiting process, let alone one that allows you to travel across the country," she explained. "Really, [the Johnson School] made it as easy as humanly possible for me to come here and get the students hired."

And that, of course, is the point. "We're really trying to make this a win-win situation for both employers and students," Alexander said. With that in mind, the Johnson School also offered a new option this year for employers to conduct remote interviews and receive free video conferencing software from SightSpeed, a company that got its start at the Johnson School.

"We've gotten a lot of visibility from these events, and I think it's very positive for the students. It does create buzz," said Ash. Alexander added, "It shows that we're willing to go outside the normal path to provide more opportunities for our students."

Stephen Measelle, MBA '06, one of the students who was interviewed by recruiters during Just About Jobs this March, agreed, saying that he was extremely pleased with the experience.

"It's obvious [from this event] that the CMC staff is working tirelessly to enroll a number of dynamic businesses into the campus recruiting engine," he said.

The event was held for the first time in 2003, when a flagging U.S. economy led companies to drastically reduce their on-campus recruiting efforts at Cornell and other U.S. universities. That year, Samuel C. Johnson, then chairman of S.C. Johnson and Son, flew corporate recruiters to Ithaca for free on several of his firm's private jets. Johnson, who died last year, was a longtime supporter of the school, which is named for his great-grandfather and namesake. The firm S.C. Johnson provided a plane this year as well.

Courtney Potts is a writer intern with the Cornell News Service.