Recruiting The Best And The Brightest

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Stanford University has developed a program that could help solve a perennial problem confronting growth companies: how do you tap into the pool of trained college graduates coming out of America's leading universities? The program, called Stanford ProNet, is a computer service designed to match alumni with companies that pay a listing fee.

To be listed, a graduate need not be looking for a job. Indeed, 80% of those who sign up are not, though they do want to hear about any opportunities that may arise. For that privilege, they fill out a three-page questionnaire covering their experience and skills. The companies, for their part, are asked to describe in some detail the kind of people they are looking for. A computer sifts through the responses and matches alumni with the companies' criteria.

The catch to all this is the fee. At present, a company must pay $4,000 to get 20 database searches a year. But Mark Jordan, ProNet's director, is looking at alternative pricing schemes that would make the service affordable to small companies.

If you can handle the expense, however, ProNet already gives you access to more than 5,000 alumni of Stanford University's engineering, business, and computer science schools. It will eventually be expanded to include graduates of Stanford's other schools as well. Meanwhile, universities from around the country have expressed interest in the program. Assuming they can overcome their traditional rivalries -- not a certainty, by any means -- there may someday be a central database of top university alumni who just might be available for the right job.