Employers

The Career Development Center adheres to the Fresno State Harassment Policy to protect students, Faculty and Staff. Please go to the Human Resources website for more information (Human Resources) regarding this policy. All recruitment must abide by our Human Resources policy to include job fairs, information sessions and on campus interviews.

All employment professionals using HireFresnoState are required to work within a framework of professionally accepted recruiting, interviewing and selection techniques as stipulated in the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Principles for Professional Practice.

Please note: On-campus employer events are intended for Fresno State students and alumni. If you wish to meet with individuals from outside the university, there are places close to campus to hold your events or you may reserve the Smittcamp Alumni House by calling 559.278.2586.

The Career Development Center serves the entire Fresno State student body and alumni. The Career Center makes its services available to employers who do not unlawfully discriminate against applicants on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

The recruitment process should be alcohol-free, unless otherwise approved by Fresno State. This includes information sessions and presentations conducted on campus. See Facilities Management – EHS RMS-Risk Management for the guidelines and alcohol application.

The Career Development 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. Examples are employment agencies, search firms, contract recruiters, venture capital firms acting on behalf of their portfolio companies, and online job posting or resume referral services. See more at NACE Principles for Professional Practice.

Third-party recruiters may utilize HireFresnoState to post jobs, participate in on-campus recruiting and attend select career fairs. You will be required to verify in advance whether you are recruiting for your own organizations or for your client. Third-party firms who are recruiting for positions within their own organizations must clearly differentiate those opportunities from their client engagements. Failure to abide by these third-party requirements will result in loss of access to the Career Development Center’s services.

Third-party recruiters must abide by the following guidelines:

• Third-party recruiters will not be allowed to charge fees of any kind to student or alumni applicants
• Third-party recruiters will be required to reveal the identity of their clients to Career Center staff
• Provide the Employer Relations Team, 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 HireFresnoState
• 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.

Private individuals seeking services such as tutoring, childcare, and gardening are encouraged to visit sites such as Care.com or TaskRabbit to locate individuals to assist you with your projects.  We do not allow postings from private individuals.

The Career Development Center reserves the right to investigate complaints by students about employers or jobs accessed through HireFresnoState. The Career Development Center also reserves the right to revoke access to HireFresnoState for violating our guidelines.

All payments for career fair and other career related events must be received by the date of the event. Companies whose payments have not been received by the event date will be sent a 30-day collections warning, post event. If payment still has not been received after 30 days, companies with outstanding balances will be sent to a collections agency. Once you company has been sent to collections, you will no longer be allowed to register for career fairs and other career related events until payment has been received. If your organization is sent to collections a second time, you will be required to submit payment before being allowed to attend future events. 

To ensure that an experience—whether it is a traditional internship or one conducted remotely or virtually (see Virtual Internships Below) —is educational, and thus eligible to be considered a legitimate internship in accordance with the NACE definition, all the following criteria must be met:

• 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.
• The skills or knowledge learned must be transferable to other employment settings.
• The experience has a defined beginning and end, and a job description with desired qualifications.
• There are clearly defined learning objectives/goals related to the professional goals of the student’s academic coursework.
• There is supervision by a professional with expertise and educational and/or professional background in the field of the experience.
• There is routine feedback by the experienced supervisor.
• There are resources, equipment, and facilities provided by the host employer that support learning objectives/goals.

If these criteria are followed, it is the opinion of NACE and Fresno State that the experience can be considered a legitimate internship. If  the opportunity does not meet these criteria, regardless of position title, it will be categorized as a full-time, temporary or part-time job.

Internships and Academic Credit

In addition to meeting the requirements listed above, for an unpaid internship be listed as an internship on HireFresnoState, the internship must be eligible for academic credit. The internship site will be required to sign an Experiential Learning Agreement between the internship site and the university. The Experiential Learning Agreement is valid for 5 years and applies to any student from any academic program at Fresno State who is utilizing the internship site for an academic internship course. A Learning Site Risk Assessment must also be on file with the University.

A Learning Plan Agreement will need to be signed by the internship site supervisor, the student and the faculty member teaching the internship course. Internship site supervisors are also required to complete at least one evaluation of the student’s performance at the conclusion of the internship. A mid-term evaluation may also be required.

Please note that each of the academic departments at Fresno State determines what is required for their specific internship course. Claudia Ceja, University Internship Coordinator, will assist you in accessing department specific course information along with the Experiential Learning Agreement and Learning Site Risk Assessment. Contact Claudia at cceja@csufresno.edu or 559.278.2381.

If an Experiential Learning Agreement and Learning Site Risk Assessment is not on-file with the university, the internship opportunity will be categorized in HireFresnoState as a Relevant Professional Experience.

Paid vs Unpaid Internships

Internships can be paid or unpaid. However, to offer an unpaid internship, you must follow the Department of Labor’s (DOL) requirements pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act. The DOL has developed a fact sheet for employers regarding the requirements needed to justify an internship being unpaid. This fact sheet can be found at http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf.

For-profit organizations offering unpaid internships, in addition to meeting the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, must ensure that the student is enrolled in an appropriate academic internship course. The student can only serve at the internship site for the hours required by the course. No additional hours can be “volunteered” at a for-profit organization.

If you pay your interns you can offer an hourly salary or a stipend. When offering a stipend for the internship, ensure that the amount of the stipend is a minimum equal to minimum wage for the hours worked.

In addition to salary or stipend, determine if you will provide other benefits such as:

• Housing and relocation assistance.
• Professional development opportunities such as conferences and seminars.
• A scholarship upon the successful completion of the internship.

The advantages of offering paid internships include a larger pool of candidates (as many students must work to support their education and could not accept an unpaid internship) and a more motivated intern who is eager to learn and wants to make the best impression possible.

Virtual Internships

Many internships posted for Fresno State students are in-person internships. While the professional environment provides a unique and important learning experience for students, the Career Development Center recognizes that there are some wonderful virtual opportunities for students to gain valuable experience and connections. With this in mind, if you are interested in posting a virtual internship for a student, the following criteria must be met.

• The word “virtual” must be included in the job title. (e.g., “Virtual Research Internship”).
• All position descriptions must meet internship criteria and standards specified by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
• The organization must be an established business or nonprofit. For proof of status, the organization should provide evidence of a physical location, website, history of offering paid employment, listed telephone number, tax ID number, etc.
• A virtual space for managing projects, workflow and saving work product must be available to the student. This could be in the form of Google Docs or any other “cloud” computing software. The student should not save work material to a personal computer.
• A regularly scheduled email report (weekly, at minimum) which includes progress, hours worked, issues encountered and any questions for the supervisor.
• Weekly virtual meetings via Zoom or similar software. On the rare occasion when this is not possible, at a minimum, a phone call should be scheduled to accommodate the meeting.
• If a hosting organization is not far from Fresno State and the employer has posted a virtual internship, allowing the student to work from campus, the employer must meet with the student in a public setting throughout the course of the virtual internship. This meeting cannot occur in a private residence or secluded space.

Information sessions provide organizations an opportunity to present information to current students and recent graduates about career and educational opportunities. All information session requests are made through HireFresnoState and are reviewed by the Employer Relations Team. Your submission does not guarantee your approval to host this event. The Career Development Center has the right to deny your request if your organization does not abide by the guidelines or what you are offering conflicts with the guidelines and policies set forth by Fresno State.

Expectations for hosting an information session at Fresno State:

• Events must be submitted with at least 3 weeks advance notice.
• Information sessions can only be booked between the hours of 9:00 am and 7:00 pm.
• Information sessions cannot exceed 2 hours in length.
• As a guest to our campus, you cannot require students to share personal information such as emails, phone numbers, student ID’s, social security number, etc.
• If requested, all information that will be disseminated to students must be vetted and approved by the Career Development Center.

On-campus interviews are a great and convenient way for employers to select and interview student candidates for full time, part-time and internship opportunities. Request a date that works best for your on-campus interviews with your HireFresnoState account.

How to Request an OCI event:

• Log in to your HireFresnoState account or register for a new account.
• Select On-Campus Requests on the left side.
• Under type box, click on down arrow and select either full-time, part-time or internship employment. (note: a request must be submitted for each visit)
• Fill in all required fields for your on campus request.
• You will receive a confirmation email with the date and location of interviews.

Please note:  Due to the lack of space availability, there is a maximum of 2 interview rooms for each event. Employers are responsible for building their interview schedule and notifying all student candidates as to the time and location of the interview. In addition, the Career Development Center can at any time request your business license number. We also reserve the right to deny your request if your job opportunities conflict with the guidelines and policies set forth by Fresno State and the California State University system.