recruiting events - what are they like?

Yea, thats about right.

The cycle goes as follows.. some firms do all of this, some do some of it, and some do none of it. In general, the bigger and more in demand the firm is, the more they do. The less known and smaller they are, the less they do.

I've listed them in the chronological order they tend to happen.

Lunch and Learn: Presentations from company execs or others about something in the industry. Attendance encouraged, but optional. You learn a lot.

Coffee Chats: Sometimes scheduled, sometimes informal, come talk to someone from the firm anytime from 12pm to 5pm and get your questions answered. Don't go in unprepared.

Campus Presentations: Formalized recruiting events where they present not on the industry but the specifics of the job. Often followed by a networking hour where you go and chat it up and try and get their attention in a positive way. Knowing something about the job and industry is a must by this point.

Invitation only pre-interview invitation events: These can include cocktail receptions or dinners or both. Most firms will do one of these for the candidates that they were either particularly impressed with on paper or candidates that impressed them through the other on campus things.

Then the interview invites come out. If you got one.... from there, you follow something like this:

Invitation only interview prepatory events: Likelyhood varies by industry. Common in consulting for case prep. Come spend an hour at the office with some employees and a group of 30 other interviewees, and they'll help you prepare.

Invitation only Pre-nights: Typically held the night before the interview itself only for those invited to interview. Usually a dinner, sometimes a cocktail reception. The idea is to break the ice -- so you know the people who are interviewing you the next day. Can easily shoot yourself in the foot at these. Tread carefully.

Then you have the 1st round interview. This can be everything from a one half hour interview to 2 one hour interviews and in some cases, it's even been four back-to-back one hour interviews (thats rare though). Most common is one or two 45 minutes slots. Varies a bit by industry as well.

Then you wait for a call. Assuming you get the call...

2nd round interview invites: They are what they sound like.

Rarely, but occasionally, you'll hear of a 3rd round after that.

Assuming you get the offer, the next step is "sell weekend". This can be as simple as taking you out to dinner one night, or as elaborate as a multi-day event intended to sell the firm.

Thats basically it.