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Ethical Job/Internship Search Policy

The mission of the Carnegie Mellon Career & Professional Development Center (CPDC) is to maximize the career and life potential of our students. One of the ways we accomplish this is by creating opportunities for our students that connect them to employers with whom we have developed relationships. It is important for the development of each student that they conduct themselves in an ethical manner. Not honoring agreements with recruiters reflects poorly on the university and impacts the organization's actions regarding future recruiting activities at Carnegie Mellon.

It is for these reasons that we hope you represent CMU in a positive manner when conducting your job search. In order to make use of our services, we at the CPDC expect all of our students/job seekers to adhere to the following ethical standards. All students are expected to read and familiarize themselves with these guidelines and our offer policy, in addition to the consequences for violating these guidelines. For any additional questions regarding our policy, please contact your Career Consultant.

Students/Job Seekers are Expected To:

Attend all scheduled campus interviews and career consultant appointments

Missing or canceling less than 24 hours prior to an interview or 12 hours before an appointment uses/blocks a time slot that could have been filled by another student.

Be on time for all campus interviews and appointments

Being late reflects poorly on a candidate and disrupts the appointment times of other candidates on the schedule.

Present qualifications in a truthful manner

This expectation applies to information on Handshake, application materials and responses in interviews including, but not limited to, listing accurate GPA (not rounding up), major, degree level and experiences information on a resume and online profiles, as well as being truthful in all interview responses.

Honor all agreements made with recruiters regarding on-site visits

Accepting an on-site interview with a company sets into motion a series of events: travel arrangements, scheduling, hotel reservations and a host of other details. If that student subsequently fails to follow through with the site visit without giving the company enough advance notice, it costs the company a considerable amount of wasted time and money, as well as denies another student the opportunity to interview.

Understand employers' hiring and offer policy

The CPDC works with employers to provide students with sufficient time to consider offers of employment. For more information, view the Employer Hiring & Offer Policy.

If an employer does not provide an offer timeline that corresponds with the CMU Offer Policy, and a student needs more time to make an informed decision, the student has the right to request an extension from the employer. Students are strongly encouraged to engage their Career Consultant within the CPDC as soon as possible if they have questions regarding requesting an extension or if the employer will not agree to the offer policy timeline after an extension request has been made by the student.

Because of the time sensitive nature of offers, students who desire an extension in their offer timeline should begin conversations with the employer early.

Accept job/internships in an ethical manner

When a student accepts a full-time or internship position, that student is expected to stop all recruiting activities, including applying and interviewing for employment opportunities. Students are expected to notify all other employers with whom they have scheduled or pending interviews of their need to be removed from consideration for those opportunities.

Reneging

Accepting an employment offer after you previously accepted an offer with another employer is defined as ‘reneging’ and is considered dishonest and unethical and carries serious implications.

Reneging reflects poorly on the candidate and potentially damages Carnegie Mellon's reputation and relationships with employers. Instances of reneging that are reported by an employer will be investigated by the CPDC and may result in loss of recruiting privileges for the student (see Consequences for Ethical Job Search Policy Violations below).