Do Your Homework for HP

Jason Rose manages the University Recruiting Program at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ), the Roseville, Calif., IT giant whose core business is computers and printers. Before starting to manage college recruiting in 2000, Rose held other recruiter-related positions within the company.

He and his colleagues are about to face a transitional period at HP. In February, the company ousted high-profile CEO Carly Fiorina. As of Apr. 1, Fiorina's replacement, Mark Hurd, who had been at the technology company NCR (NCR ), signed on as CEO and president, with the aim of setting the tech company back on track.

In the meantime, Rose says he is looking for MBAs who can take on roles in finance, marketing, supply chain and operations, or human resources, and who will bring a fresh, new perspective on business to HP. The recruiting manager, who graduated from California State University, Sacramento, with a degree in human resources and marketing before arriving at HP seven years ago, recently spoke with BusinessWeek Online reporter Francesca Di Meglio. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:

Q: What is Hewlett-Packard's culture like?
A: I think HP is a fun, creative company. From the early days, we've been about innovation and changing technology. This culture empowers the employees. It's a self-managed organization. You're given a list of responsibilities and you're expected to manage them.

You have the opportunity to work with organizations that are cross-functional. You will work with people from across the globe because HP has a presence in more than 170 countries.

We don't have defined career paths at HP. One person has been with HP for 20-plus years and was always based in the same geographic location but has had four or five different types of jobs within the company, including marketing, finance, and HR positions. Then, there was another person who is a high-level finance manager who has pretty much had the same kind of role but moved around the globe for HP. The point is that you can have multiple careers and stay with the same company.

Q: How many MBAs do you hire in a year?
A: We don't disclose exact numbers. We had roughly a 5% increase in full-time hires and 10% increase in internships in 2004. For all of our campus visits for tech and MBA positions, we interview roughly 2,400 to 2,500 students annually. About 40% of those are MBA interviews.

Q: How do you decide where to recruit?
A: HP has a total of 47 targeted universities in the U.S. We tier the schools based on levels of support, whether we can physically get to the campus, how often we go to campus, etc. The vast majority of those schools represent universities in which we have a relationship with both the computer science and engineering school and the MBA program.

We look to have a comprehensive relationship with each university that might include research collaborations, areas in which we could offer philanthropy grants, and recruiting.

Q: What's your recruiting strategy?
A: Typically, we will visit many of the top schools two times a year -- in the fall for full-time and in the spring for internship recruiting. The first trip each year is to educate students about the company. We'll do a series of information sessions and informal Q&As to give students an idea of whether they are a good fit.

We follow up with meetings with student groups or career-development workshops. It varies by school. These campus trips culminate with a series of on-campus interviews to match up students with a job in the company.

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