Purpose: The paper aims to improve students' job placements, higher education institutions invest considerable resources and their students spend considerable time in academic clubs. Yet, quantitative findings on the effect of students' academic club involvement on job placements are mixed. This paper aims to help resolve ambiguity regarding the effect of academic clubs on job placements. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted two studies. The first developed an inductive theoretical model by interviewing recruiters and managers and extending status characteristics theory. The second study is an experiment that tested the first study's inductive model and increased the model's generalizability. Findings: The results of both studies show that executive board membership, but not general membership, increases perceptions of applicants' emotional control and public speaking ability, and thereby increases applicants' chances of getting an interview. Practical implications: Administrators should consider shifting resources away from academic clubs that only benefit a few students and toward programs that help more students develop transferable skills. Students should prioritize joining clubs in which students think students can become executive board members. Academic clubs should require general members to have responsibilities that help members develop transferable skills. Industry may need to make more competitive offers to hire executive board members. Originality/value: The two studies contribute to research on academic clubs by suggesting that the results of previous academic club membership studies are mixed, because only executive board members are more likely to get interviews. The results also highlight the importance of applying status characteristics theory to future academic club research.