With temperatures often in the balmy 40s, it's sometimes hard to tell when spring has come to Cambridge.

But, as any undergraduate can tell you, there's one sure-fire way to mark the rites of spring.

You just look for the suits.

In what long ago became a popular springtime ritual, Harvard students play dress-up and head over to the Office of Career Services (OCS) to vie for jobs as consultants and investment bankers.

Although OCS does not keep hard figures on the number of students who go through the recruiting process, Assistant Director Marc P. Cosentino says "traditionally it's been about 45 percent of the class."

Cosentino, who specializes in business counseling, says that, as a rule of thumb, approximately one-third of those students will be offered jobs.

This year's bumper crop netted a 40 to 45 percent acceptance rate, however.

"This year has been probably the best year I've seen," he says.

Recruiting is generally broken down into consulting, investment banking and technology.

While these three fields account for 60 percent of the firms that recruit at Harvard, they provide 80 percent of the jobs, according to Cosentino.

This fall's recruiting season brought 85 firms to Harvard, and 475 companies showed up in the spring.

Find Me a Perfect Match

Despite growth in technology fields, Harvard's true recruiting love affair is with consulting and investment banking.

In the '95-'96 academic year, 85 percent of those who went through the recruiting process applied to at least one consulting firm. 54 percent applied to at least one investment bank, a figure which has probably risen to 60 percent this year, Cosentino says.

These formidable figures raise the question of why recruiting and Harvard seem to make such a perfect match.

For Cosentino, the answer is a simple one.

"There are very few other industries out there that will hire liberal arts graduates and train them," he says. "You get terrific training. The skill base that you are going to develop over that time period is going to last a lifetime."

Director of OCS William Wright-Swadel sees some additional reasons for the love triangle between Harvard, consulting and investment banking.

"The kinds of roles they expect students to perform...are things Harvard students are very good at and enjoy," he says.

Show Them the Money?

Wright-Swadel also cites a reason for going through recruiting similar to the one Sir Edmund Hilary gave for climbing Mt. Everest: because it was there.

The presence of so many recruiters on campus makes applying for a job convenient, he says.

The money doesn't scare anybody away either.

Cosentino says that most investment banks pay a base salary of approximately $30,000 with "huge bonuses at the end of the year."

"At the end of the two years, a student can make $110,000," he says.

Consultants make salaries in the mid-$40,000s without bonuses but with substantial raises in the second year.

"They probably make a little bit less than an investment banker," Cosentino says.

Still, in a survey conducted by OCS, students rated pay only fourth on a list of reasons why they chose jobs through recruiting.

The opportunity to take on significant responsibilities rated first. The quality of co-workers and the culture of the work-place were second.

The prestige of the firms and the opportunity to get into top flight business schools ranked third.

"For most people, money is not one of the biggest factors," Cosentino says.

Jason C. Grillo '97, a history concentrator who participated in recruiting this year but did not find a job, says consulting appealed to him for a variety of reasons.

"It seemed like a job where I could use a lot of analytical skills and that featured a lot of travel, which is a plus," he says. "I thought it was a good job for someone that didn't have any business experience."

Grillo also shrugs off the influence of money.

"It was a factor," he says. "I obviously wanted a well-paying job, but it wasn't decisive."

Suzee E. Lee '97, an English concentrator who will be a consultant at Mitchell Madison Group in New York, took a circuitous route to consulting.

She originally wanted to work for a non-profit organization but found few job openings there.

"I think a lot of people, when they're seniors and they don't know what they're going to do later...look at recruiting and see that it's a pretty good option," she says.

For Lee, money was "not at all" a factor.

Not an Unrequited Love

The marriage between recruiting and Harvard is also a strong one because Harvard students provide the companies with the skills they need.

Consulting firms and investment banks look for strong analytical skills, leadership, past work experience and the ability to work on a team, according to Cosentino.

"Harvard students know how to think, they can write well, and they can articulate their thoughts," he says.

Wright-Swadel says he agrees.

"A lot of it is just the quality of the students," he says.

Wright-Swadel also credits his staff with attracting many firms to Harvard.

"The more we communicate, the more they want to come," he says.

For a final reason, Wright-Swadel echoes the tried-and-true logic of President Clinton.

Recent boom-times have enabled companies to hire more employees at higher wages, he says.

In other words, it's the economy, stupid.