B.E. on campus: from the classroom to the board room.

American Express New York, New York

Although American Express has no formal training program, it has a broad recruiting program. It recruits business graduate students at seven institutions, most of them on the East Coast.

Pat Hargrove Buckley, manager of campus relations for American Express, notes that "We have found that those institutions have provided us with a nice, diverse pool of personnel for the functions we recruit for, and we have a lot of alumni from them who work for American Express."

For entry-level jobs, the primary feeder at American Express is its summer internship program. It had 103 interns this year in all areas of the company from many colleges and universities. Graduate students usually intern for one year; undergraduates for two years.

American Express also participates in certain alliances to increase the number of minority recruits. One of these is I called "A Better Chance." Based in Boston, the organization offers opportunities for undergraduates to network with corporate executives. As a corporate sponsor, American Express provides scholarships for students from this group and twice a year interviews affiliated students who are graduating for full-time positions. American Express also works with Crimson & Brown, minority recruiters headquartered in Boston, as well as Inroads, the national internship organization.

As for internal training, Buckley says the company has no formal program. It recruits by function into various operating areas. "We build persons into the jobs such as finance, marketing, network development, operations, technologies and sometimes credit and risk management,- she explains. Grade point average and work history are two d the most important things American Express looks for in recruiting.

Marriot International Washington, DC

Demand for talent is high at Marriott International. It has a lot of entry-level posts all around the company including finance and accounting, information systems and jobs such as food services, lodging, management services and senior living services. With a workforce of over 200,000 employees Marriott offers broad opportunities to anyone interested in hospitality, hotel and restaurant management.

Twenty percent of Marriott's new employees come from college recruiting. Although many of these have business or information systems degrees, the company also hires liberal arts graduates While academic achievement is important, Christopher Powell, manager of university relations, says grades are not the sole factor in hiring Work history and personality are just as important because, as Powell says 'We are a people business "

Today the Marriott has around 25 dedicated recruiters who visit about 50 institutions. Right now it is in the process of developing a more strategic campus recruitment program that will focus on finding a smaller number of schools that meets its hiring needs.