If you are starting the spring semester without a job or internship lined up for the summer, you are part of the majority of BC students. While it’s completely normal to feel anxious every time you see a new LinkedIn internship or job update from a classmate, it might ease your nerves to hear that 59% of 2022 BC grads received their job offers in the spring or beyond, and 69% of summer 2023 internship offers were received in the spring semester.
Hiring Timelines Vary by Industry
Every industry follows a unique recruiting cycle. Generally, organizations that recruit in the fall are larger and able to forecast their hiring needs. They recruit on college campuses to fill a certain number of slots for summer interns or new hires. These organizations generally fall into the consulting, finance, business, and tech industries.
Most industries, however, conduct “just-in-time” hiring strategies and post opportunities as positions become vacant in the spring. This type of recruitment makes your job and internship search a bit harder because it is less predictable.
Luckily, we have data to help you anticipate when jobs or internships will be posted. The data below show when job or internship offers were received. While the time between applying for a role and receiving an offer can vary by employer, the average hiring process takes 3 to 6 weeks. Therefore, you can anticipate that positions will be posted about one to two months prior to when offers are made.
Hiring Timelines by Career Cluster
The following chart shows when the classes of 2017-2022 received their offers for full-time jobs.
| Before Senior Year | Fall Semester Senior Year | Spring Semester Senior Year | After Graduation | Fall After | |
| All Clusters | 20% | 21% | 39% | 15% | 5% |
| Communication, Arts, and Marketing | 3% | 11% | 48% | 27% | 12% |
| Consulting, Finance, and Business | 35% | 29% | 25% | 9% | 2% |
| Education, Nonprofit, and Social Impact | 4% | 11% | 57% | 23% | 6% |
| Government, Law, and Public Policy | 3% | 4% | 59% | 27% | 7% |
| Healthcare, Nursing, and Counseling | 5% | 7% | 54% | 25% | 9% |
| Science, Technology, and Engineering | 5% | 26% | 50% | 14% | 5% |
The following chart shows when students received their internship offers for the summers of 2021-2023:
| Before September | September-December | January-March | April-May | |
| All Clusters | 13% | 18% | 37% | 32% |
| Communication, Arts, and Marketing | 4% | 12% | 38% | 46% |
| Consulting, Finance, and Business | 19% | 28% | 33% | 20% |
| Education, Nonprofit, and Social Impact | 11% | 8% | 39% | 42% |
| Government, Law, and Public Policy | 3% | 6% | 39% | 52% |
| Healthcare, Nursing, and Counseling | 10% | 6% | 46% | 38% |
| Science, Technology, and Engineering | 8% | 15% | 42% | 35% |
Be sure to check out your career cluster page to learn more about when you can expect your industry to hire. You can also review our internship and first destination dashboards to explore more data about when students and recent graduates secured their positions.
Searching for a Job or Internship? Here are some tips…
Meet with a career coach. Schedule a time to meet with one of our coaches to develop a search plan.
Use your Handshake account to find opportunities. Learn how to navigate the platform with our Handshake guide and get started with these tips:
- Set a weekly goal to browse open job/internship opportunities on Handshake.
- Fill out the career interests section of your profile to receive customized job recommendations.
- Save positions you are interested in by clicking on the blue bookmark icon. Handshake will send you notifications and similar postings based on what you saved.
- Follow employers you like. You will receive email alerts when these employers post new jobs and events on Handshake, and this also helps improve your job recommendations.
Track your progress and stay organized using an internship/job search tracking sheet. Since you will likely be at different stages of the application process with various organizations at a given time, developing a process to keep track of all the details is essential.
Make sure to save a copy of each job description that you apply for. This will be helpful in case the posting is taken off the internet before you interview.
Boston College Career Center Blog 
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