If your efforts to get invited for interviews (both on and off-campus) don’t work, don’t worry. You may still have a chance to interview with some companies. Most business schools implement some sort of bidding or auction system to let students, by supply and demand forces, determine who gets to interview with the highly desirable companies. Being a market-driven system, it is almost impossible to outsmart. However, if your school has such a system, consider the following:

– Plan your bidding for the whole recruiting season: By selecting beforehand the position you will bid for, you will avoid the two most common bidding pitfalls: 1) overbidding for jobs you were not to excited about (and being left without points for those that really matter) and 2) underbidding for the jobs you really like, not getting any, and end the season with all your points.

– Don’t bid round numbers: Most people will bid round numbers (in 5 and 10 increments). By bidding one or two points over, you can get a better opportunity (e.g. instead of bidding 50, bid 51 or 52).

– Find out the POs policy toward foreign students: Consider this – you get an interview through bidding, but when the company finds out you are foreign student, they decide not to interview you. Will you get your points back?

– If in doubt, spread your points as much as you can: Spending all your points in one or two companies can be very risky.