Despite the fact that the country is having an economic downturn, the 24th annual NSBE/SHPE Career Fair, held last Friday and Saturday, was still able to attract more than 3,000 visitors with more than 100 companies recruiting.
“This is our 24th year organizing this fair and it’s getting better each year. Even though there are less companies coming this year, we’re still glad that we’re getting positive responses from the students,” said Crystal M. Wallace, career fair co-chair understudy.
She added, “The planning for this fair started right after the last career fair. The feedback that we got from the students helped us in choosing the right companies. In addition, the support given by the school’s administration and our sponsors helped us in running the fair smoothly.”
The fair attracted about 100 companies such as IBM, GE, GM, Xerox Corp., and Unilever which not only had employment opportunities in the engineering field but also non-engineering. Most of the companies offered full-time employment, internships, and co-ops for undergraduate and graduate students.
“We’re looking for students who have good technical and interpersonal skills, those who excel not only in academic but also non-academic activities since we believe that performance in school signifies one’s future performance in the career world,” said Unilever representative Dave Shinn.
Jane Morse from Roger’s Corp. also shared the same opinion, “What we’re looking for right now is a person who is an ‘all arounder.’ If the person has experience in co-op or internship, that would give him/her an extra credit since he/she knows what to expect and what to do. We only have five openings for full-time employment. So the competition is very tight.”
Most of the companies are returning companies that have been at the fair for the past few years.
“We’ve been here since seven [or] eight years ago. The reason for it is simply because RPI is a very good engineering school that produces very good students,” said a representative from PSEG Power.
“We’re very satisfied with the performance shown by the RPI students that we employed,” said Kathryn Halem from Grace Performance Chemicals.
“RPI students have shown everything that we want in an engineer,” she continued.
For students, this fair has given them a big opportunity to network with corporate representatives allowing them to pick their brains. “This fair certainly has given me some basic ideas about what I’m going to do once in the career world. The recruiters have been very helpful in giving advice on what to expect in becoming an engineer,” said Khairun Nissa Shagul.
“For me, it’s the best time to search for an employment [opportunity]. I have my eyes set on a career that involves IT. Hopefully, my applications would be accepted by the companies that I applied to,” said Chris Wilson.
Through the trying financial times that companies are suffering under, students maintain a sense of hopefulness that there are opportunities out there.
“I think the fair is doing a good job given the current economy situation. All the companies that I went to have been very helpful,” said Myrdna Vargas ‘03.
