Although the job market is starting to look up, many students still need help with the search. To aid in the job hunt, the College of Engineering and Computer Science hosted its first Career Fair on November 12.
“Our job is to serve students, not just to teach them and let them go. We have to teach them and then help them find jobs. Our enrollment and our graduation numbers have increased a lot, and it became hard to help all of them find jobs one on one,” said Dr. Neslihan Alp, Interim Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at UTC.
The CECS Career Fair will take place twice per year, in the fall and spring semesters.
“Sometimes students need a job before they graduate. I realized that this was something we need every semester. If we had it only in the spring, the students graduating in the fall could not benefit from it,” said Alp.
It was also important to have the fair within the EMCS building.
“We wanted to have our job fair here in the building. The University job fair is in the University Center, but sometimes our students have classes back to back and don’t have the time to go. Many of our students have part time jobs, families, and limited time on campus. Having this here in the building give students a chance to talk to representatives from companies between their classes,” said Jim Kurtz, Outreach Coordinator for CECS, who helped coordinate the event.
Andrew Williams, a senior majoring in computer science, came to the CECS Career Fair seeking job opportunities after he graduates in spring 2015.
“I’m 31, and I decided to make a career change in 2011, so I went back to school. I’m interning with TVA right now, but I wanted to come out here today to see what other options were available to me in the Chattanooga area in my field, just to get a feel for what I can do upon graduation. The last time I went to a career fair, it was a mix of different employers looking for students from different disciplines, which was great, but this is really great for us to get the focused job fair where employers are looking specifically for STEM careers,” said Williams.
Farah Al Sayyad is a junior majoring in computer engineering. She has a Master’s Degree in mathematics from her home country of Lebanon. This is her first year in the United States. She came seeking internships and interview experience.
“I didn’t want to continue on to my Ph.D. in mathematics, but outside of that path, mathematics is somewhat limited. I don’t want to teach. So I need experience in something with more options for work,” she said. “I’m searching first for an internship, but my language is not that perfect. Even being English educated, coming to the States is totally different. I’m used to writing, reading – not talking. I want some experience in how to act, and what employers ask, what companies are, and what to expect.”
The CECS Career Fair was created not as a replacement for the University wide Career Fair, but as a supplement to it.
“Usually, the University job fair is early in the semester. We decided to hold our job fair late in the semester. Sometimes, students coming back from break have a hard time thinking about and preparing for the early job fair. Our fair is close to graduation, so students graduating can be looking for jobs,” said Alp.
“We recommend them to go to any and all the fairs, to explore, so this is in addition to the university fair, not a replacement. The University job fair is very general – it serves as a great introduction to a lot of different jobs and companies. This one is much more specific, with companies seeking engineering, technology, and computer science. Our student body is all the same, so this is much more focused,” continued Alp.
Nearly thirty companies participated in the fair, from Erlanger to GE.
“We had prior connections with some companies and we worked with the University Career Center and they helped us communicate with other companies. There were some companies not participating in the University job fair, and we reached out to them as well,” said Alp. “We want to be more visible, we don’t want there to be a disconnect between us and the job community. Many of these companies already hire our students after graduation, so we wanted to bring them together in one location.”
