Annual NSBE/SHPE career fair to be hosted virtually

The Rensselaer chapters of the National Society of Black Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers host the annual Fall career fair. Though the NSBE/SHPE career fair normally takes place in the RPI Armory, this year’s career fair will be held virtually on September 25 and 26 from 11 am to 5 pm on the platform Brazen.

Students can register for the career fair at their website: https://rpicareerfair.org.

Brazen was chosen as the platform for the career fair after NSBE and SHPE researched various platforms and spoke with company recruiters, as well as reaching out to other schools’ student-run career fair committees. NSBE/SHPE felt that Brazen was the best match in terms of the “extensive list of resources available to both recruiters and students, their support team, and overall participant/user experience,” according to Galilea Olvera ’22, the fair’s co-director. Olvera added, “we knew no single platform would be 100% ideal and offer everything on our list, but we also knew having a virtual career fair would be better than having no career fair.”

Similar to an in-person career fair, Brazen allows students to browse company booths in the platform’s main lobby, enter a booth, and line up for a one-on-one conversation with a company recruiter. Olvera highlighted that queues will have an “estimated wait time,” and companies can choose to pre-screen applicants with a questionnaire based on their qualifications. According to the Brazen site, this “SmartQueue” feature allows employers to automatically let more qualified candidates chat first.

While one-on-one conversations with recruiters start in a chat format and go for a minimum of 10 minutes, recruiters have the option to request to video call students, and chat for an additional 10 minutes if they choose to do so.

NSBE/SHPE recommends students to attend virtual career prep and recruiting events held by NSBE/SHPE and the CCPD in order to prepare for this year’s event. NSBE/SHPE also reminds students to dress appropriately for an interview in case a company recruiter would like to video chat.

The RPI career fair site also directs suggestions to improve the NSBE/SHPE Career Fair to the co-directors of the NSBE/SHPE Career Fair at cochairs.careerfair.rpi@gmail.com.