Recruiter Policies & Guidelines

By acting in accordance with the following policies and procedures, individuals and organizations can help the Georgia Tech Career Center maintain a professional, fair, and successful recruiting environment for all parties concerned. Your use of both our services and the Career Buzz platform constitutes your binding agreement to the policies that follow:

The Career Center at Georgia Tech maximizes full-time employment, co-op, and internship opportunities for its students by offering a range of services to facilitate recruitment of prospective candidates. The Career Center requires that any recruiting organization or individual utilizing services must abide by all applicable federal, state, and local employment laws, including Equal Employment Opportunity laws, Georgia Tech rules and regulations, and the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Principles for Ethical Professional Practice.  You may refer to a detailed list of resources outlining these laws, rules, regulations, and standards at the conclusion of this document.

CareerBuzz is the web-based portal for publicizing all bona fide full-time, part-time, co-op and internship positions as well as other recruiting activities for small and large businesses, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, on-campus employers.  All recruiting organizations or individuals are expected to accurately describe their organizations, positions and position requirements when posting their information on CareerBuzz, or when representing their firms and opportunities at any campus recruiting events. The Career Center does not offer recruitment services to companies and/or job postings requiring donations, application and/or background check fees, fundraising, investments, payment for training, or payment to participate, and/or offering items or services for sale.

We reserve the right to refuse service to employers at the discretion of the Georgia Tech Career Center staff due to any objectionable activities, including, but not limited to:

• Requiring personal information at the time of application, such as bank and social security numbers
• Misrepresentation, whether defined by dishonest information or absence of information
• Fraud
• Harassment of students, alumni, or staff
• Breach of confidentiality as required by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Failure to adhere to Career Center employer policies
• Any violation of Georgia Tech rules and regulations
• Any violation of local, state, or federal laws

Employers recruiting interns must abide by all policies including the criteria set forth by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). To ensure that an experience (whether it is a traditional internship or one conducted remotely or virtually) is educational, and thus eligible to be considered a legitimate internship by the NACE definition, all the following criteria must be met:

1. The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying the knowledge gained in the classroom. It must not be simply to advance the operations of the employer or be the work that a regular employee would routinely perform.
2. The skills or knowledge learned must be transferable to other employment settings.
3. The experience has a defined beginning and end, and a job description with desired qualifications.
4. There are clearly defined learning objectives/goals related to the professional goals of the student’s academic coursework.
5. There is supervision by a professional with expertise and educational and/or professional background in the field of the experience.
6. There is routine feedback by the experienced supervisor. 
7. There are resources, equipment, and facilities provided by the host employer that support learning objectives/goals.

Co-op experiences are full-time and always paid. Internships with for-profit companies should be paid at least minimum wage.

For-profit companies offering unpaid, stipend, and/or internships that require credit must uphold the Department of Labor’s Fair Labor Standards Act Internship Fact Sheet #71  (Adobe PDF) 7-factor “primary beneficiary test”.

We expect all employers to abide by the standards set forth under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a federal law that establishes minimum wages for work performed. In accordance with this law, the U.S. Department of Labor has developed seven criteria for differentiating between an employee and/or intern entitled to minimum wage or more, and an employee and/or intern who may be legally unpaid. We cannot approve unpaid positions posted in CareerBuzz if they are not in accordance with the FLSA.

In addition, Georgia Tech supports the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) position on unpaid internships.

Organizations recruiting volunteers must be classified as either non-profit or governmental agencies and will be permitted to post on CareerBuzz and provided additional services on a case-by-case basis. Private, for-profit companies will not be permitted to post volunteer opportunities. Volunteer positions must support public service, religious, or humanitarian objectives and the activity must benefit the community at large. There must be no expectation of compensation or entitlement to a paid position at the conclusion of the experience. Volunteer positions are typically short-term, lasting fewer than 6 months, and require only a few hours per week of commitment. Volunteer positions must also be in-person; remote positions will not be approved.

The Career Center defines third-party recruiters as agencies, organizations, or individuals recruiting candidates for temporary, part-time, or full-time employment opportunities for other organizations rather than for internal positions. Third-party recruiters may utilize CareerBuzz, participate in on-campus recruiting and attend select career fairs. They will be required to verify in advance whether they are recruiting for their own organizations or for their clients. Third-party firms who are recruiting for positions within their own organizations must clearly differentiate those opportunities from their client engagements. The Career Center will not provide services to organizations wishing to promote their job board or website. Positions posted in CareerBuzz by third-party employers must be individual, specific, and for an active opportunity.

Third-party recruiters representing client organizations must:

• Verify that they charge no fees of any kind to student or alumni applicants
• Identify themselves as a third-party recruiter in their employer profile and all client job announcements
• Provide to the Career Center in advance a list of the employer clients for whom they are recruiting, and, if requested after review, provide a copy of the retainer(s) signed by their employer client(s) authorizing them to act as their sole campus representatives
• Provide accurate position descriptions and include specific client names in all jobs posted on Symplicity (CareerBuzz)
• Only release candidate information provided to the identified employer in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Re-disclosure of candidate information to any other parties is not permitted

Positions that include commission-based compensation must fully disclose the compensation structure in any job posting or at any on-campus recruiting event. These positions will be service-eligible on a case-by-case basis.

Multi-Level or Network Marketing Organizations and Franchise/Business Opportunities are not eligible to participate in employer services. Such organizations are those that engage in one or more of the following practices:

• Sponsors an individual in setting up his/her own business for the purpose of selling products or services and/or recruiting other individuals to set up their own business (Direct Sales Organizations).
• Requires an initial investment from individuals with the organization itself serving as an umbrella or parent corporation. The initial investment may be, but is not limited to, direct payment of a fixed fee, payment to attend an orientation or training session, and/or purchase of a starter kit.
• Compensates in the form of straight commission, fees from others under their sponsorship in the organization, and/or a percentage of sales generated by others, but not limited to, the candidate’s name, employer, and salary).​