I went to a major US university which was a recruitment center for a number of companies. I got a job at one rather by chance, as a good friend was applying th

I went to a major US university which was a recruitment center for a number of companies. I got a job at one rather by chance, as a good friend was applying there and told me I should too. But this happened several months before graduation. In cases like that, at major US universities, some big companies (each of whom can hire dozens of students every year) are in a race: they know that they will overlap in which students they want most. So they offer early, and they play games like the "exploding offer" we have discussed here before. With those companies, recruitment of a spring graduating class will be complete before the start of winter. After graduation, things should get easier once you have 2-3 years of work experience (i.e. one industry standard job lifetime). Small companies may be more flexible and/or random, because they are less systematic and probably only hire one person (or no one) each year from most schools.