Career Fair Experiences (Alfredo Ramirez, Junior, Engineering Science)

I'm sure you've heard it before: Penn State is the no. 1 most recruited school in the country. This is a great factoid that reinforces the pride I feel to be a part of Penn State. Nevertheless, it’s one thing to be told it and another altogether to experience it when you walk into the BJC and are confronted by hundreds of companies looking to recruit Penn State talent and Engineers in particular. This year was my first time participating in Fall Career Days; it was an exciting, exhausting, occasionally overwhelming, and wholly rewarding experience.

Fall Career Days  is a yearly event co-sponsored by Career Services and many other entities within Penn State that helps students connect with employers. The main attraction, if you will, is the career fair held at the BJC, which is broken into three events over three days: non-technical full-time, co-ops and internships, and technical full-time. This year, 515 organizations registered, a 9% increase over last year. Alongside the career fair, many organizations (SWE, NSBE & SHPE to name a few) within the College of Engineering host their own networking events, ranging from resume workshops to mock interview sessions and general info sessions.

In addition to meeting with recruiters during the fair itself or through one of the many networking events, companies hosted interviews on-site at the BJC, HUB or Career Services Center. If you were lucky (and talked to an oil company) you even had the chance to interview at The Tavern! Some companies made offers before the week was over; for others, second interviews are just being scheduled and for some companies, interviews won’t happen until October or later.

I’m incredibly glad to have attended the career fair. Aside from the awesome swag (be it a Northrop Grumman mousepad or a fancy CIA mug), I got valuable interview practice and the potential for some amazing internships this summer. Most importantly, I was struck by how in-demand Engineers are and the kind of impact they can have. I interviewed with five different companies in five very different industries and it just really drove home the fact that Engineers everywhere are tackling interesting and diverse problems that help shape the future!