Career fair brings big opportunities to Bagley Students
October 22, 2014
Exxon Mobil’s Charles Clancy (right) speaks with an engineering student about career opportunities.
STARKVILLE, Miss. – More than 100 recruiters visited Mississippi State University’s Starkville campus to recruit Bagley College of Engineering students to their companies’ ranks.
Offering intern, co-op and full-time positions, these representatives from companies across the nation met with more than 1,200 students during the university’s annual Engineering and Technical Career Fair.
Senior industrial engineering major Ryan Weitzel has participated in the career fair since his freshman year and said that he has seen many benefits from attending annually.
“I go because it gives me options to look into,” Weitzel said. “It gives me a chance to learn more about companies, to practice my interview skills and to meet people.”
Weitzel stressed that making an appearance at events like the career fair can have an impact on a company’s employment decisions.
“It benefits you for an employer to see your face, because it sets you apart, and the personal interaction gives you a point of contact,“ Weitzel said. “If you just apply online, they might get hundreds of applications, and most of them are going to be really good applications, so you want to have something for someone to say, ‘Oh yeah, I remember that guy.’”
For newcomers like sophomore chemical engineering major Amber Ellis, the career fair was a good opportunity to further explore lesser known engineering companies.
“You learn a lot about companies that are really small, that you’ve never heard of, and it gives you that one-on-one experience to talk to those companies,” Ellis said.
Exxon Mobil engineer and Mississippi State alumnus Charles Clancy says he believes alumni can play a vital role in the recruitment of students.
“We relate more to Mississippi State students than someone from another school would,” Clancy said. “A lot of us have been with the company for less than five years, so I think we relate that much more to the people coming in because we’re younger.”
Many companies have made a commitment to recruit at MSU by joining the Career Center Partner program. Some of these companies include International Paper, Northrop Gruman and Entergy.
Clancy said recruiting MSU students is his way of giving back to the university.
“This is how I got my start in my career. I feel almost obligated to come back and bring young talent to Exxon Mobil,” Clancy said. “We’re really big into Mississippi State because it’s a really good engineering school, so we’re looking for talent to come out of MSU.”
Charlie Wilder, engineering coordinator for the Career Center, suggested students should prepare for the career fair by researching companies of interest, printing several copies of their resumes and dressing in business-professional attire.
He added that following-up with recruiters is just as important as taking the first step of attending the career fair.
“Students should definitely send thank you notes to contacts they meet at the fair,” Wilder said. “I recommend reminding the employer about any specifics of the conversation that day and any highlights from the student’s resume.”
To learn more about the career center, visit career.msstate.edu
For more information about the Bagley College of Engineering, visit www.bagley.msstate.edu
By Jen Nguyen