In this section there are four passages followed by
questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked [A],
[B], [C], and [D]. Choose the one that you think is the best answer.
Mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET. TEXT A Come September, the
campuses of America will be swarming not just with returning undergraduates, but
also with employers set on signing up the most able 10% of them. "We are seeing
a far more competitive market for talent," says Steve Candle, a recruitment
manager at General Electric (GE). Students who recently could have expected two
or three offers in their final year are now getting as many as five. To gain a
competitive edge, firms are arriving ever earlier on campus with their
recruitment caravans. They also start to look at (and select) summer interns
more as potential full-time employees than as mere seasonal extra hands: 60% of
GE’s graduate recruits in America this year, for instance, will come from its
crop of more than 2,000 interns①. Many interns will have employment
contracts in their pockets before they even return for their final year of
study. Firms are working harder to polish their image in the
eyes of undergraduates. Some have staff who de little but tour campuses
throughout the year, keeping the firm’s name in front of both faculty and
students, and promoting their "employer brand". GE focuses on 38 universities
where it actively promotes itself as an employer. Pricewaterhousecoopers ( PWC),
an accounting firm, targets 200 universalities and gives a partner
responsibility for each. PWC says that each of its partners spends up to 200
hours a year "building relationships on campus". That particular
investment seems to have paid off. Each year Universum, an employer-branding
consultant, asks some 30,000 American students to name their ideal employer. In
this year’s survey, published recently, PWC came second (up from 4th in 2004),
topped only by BWM. Yet the German carmaker, which knocked Microsoft off the top
spot, steers clear of campuses, relying for its popularity, says Universum, on
the "coolness" of its products②. Students, it seems,
are heavily influenced in their choice of ideal employer by their perception of
that employer’s products and services. Soaring up this year’s list were Apple
Computer (from 41st to 13th) and the Federal Bureau of Investment (from 138th to
10th). The success of Apple’s cool iPod has had a powerful effect in the firm’s
ability to recruit top undergraduates. Likewise, the positive portrayal of the
FBI in some recent films and TV shows has allegedly helped with
recruitment. The accounting firms say that the fall of Enron and
Arthur Andersen has done their recruitment no harm: instead, they claim, it has
made students realize that accounting is not mere number crunching, but also
involves moral judgments. The "Big Four" accounting firms are all among this
year’s top 15 ideal employers. Undergraduates now do much of
their research into future employments online. There seems to be a close
correlation between their choice of ideal employer and their choice of most
impressive website—where PWC, Microsoft and Ernst & Young win gold, silver
and bronze respectively. Even so, some famous firms think they
still appreciate the personal touch, and are sending their most senior
executives to campuses to meet students and to give speeches. "The top attracts
top," says, Claudia Tattanelli, boss of Universum in America. Jeffrey
Immelt, GE’s chief executive, is a keen on-campus speaker .and has visited six
leading universities in the past year. In the process, he may have shaken hands
with one of his successors. What is the best title for the selection
A.In Search of the Ideal Employer B.Competitive Talent Market C.Strategies for Good Recruitment D.Image and Products