[brettnak]

I've actually always thought that employers who learned that a candidate put his or herself through college thought more highly of that person. Being able to show up daily and get through the trudge would be, to me, hugely more telling than a 'leadership position' at a club or a student union. Though, maybe that's just my lack of school spirit showing.

[dbaugh]

I do think the "leadership" bias is only really apparent in large corporations. I do think that small companies tend to value skill and hard work more, however I find, being in school right now, that it is the large corporations that are recruiting students at job fairs and not smaller companies and start ups. I think students who work, and and learn skills on their own are better off looking for jobs on their own outside of official recruiting. At least for people going into tech.

[pmiller2]

I do think the "leadership" bias is only really apparent in large corporations.

I don't know about that. I think it's more impressive myself to see that someone worked his or her way through school than to see tons of extracurricular activities. In fact, unless they're professionally relevant, extracurricular activities don't rank very highly at all on my list of things I'd like to see on a resume.

Edit: Of course, I should add, I don't work for a major corporation, either.

[eru]

Amen to that. Also for companies job fairs can look a bit disappointing.