The Career Center is kicking off the fall semester with several engineering career fairs. Beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 6, there will be consecutive events for engineering majors throughout the week.
On Tuesday, the Engineering Honors Career Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in rooms 297 to 299 at the Zachry Engineering Education Complex.
On Wednesday, Sept. 7 and Thursday, Sept. 8, the Engineering Career Fair will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Ford Hall of Champions, located at Kyle Field. The Student Engineers’ Council, or SEC, sponsors both days of the event. During those same days, the Industrial & Systems Engineering Career Fair will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Memorial Student Center, or MSC, in room 2400. The event is sponsored by the Institute of Industrial & System Engineers, or IISE, at Texas A&M.
All attendees of the events are required to wear business casual attire, but business professional attire is recommended. According to SEC members, attendees are encouraged to bring multiple printed copies of their updated resume for recruiters.
The SEC is sponsoring an additional event for those unable to attend the other career fairs.
A virtual Engineering Career Fair which will be held on Friday, Sept. 9, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Career Fair Plus platform. Pre-registration for the event is required. Those interested in attending should visit the Career Fair section of the A&M Career Center website for further instructions on registering for a virtual event.
The Engineering Career Fair, sponsored by the SEC, is open to all engineering students. Civil engineer senior and SEC Vice President of External Affairs highly encourages freshmen to participate in the event.
“We encourage freshmen to come out and get networking experience with the recruiters,” Borawski said.
Borawski, who also serves as the co-chair of the career fair, emphasized the importance of establishing networks and improving communication skills.
“Every year, we’re looking to improve the student-recruiter interactions that we have,” Borawski said.
This year’s Engineering Career Fair will be the second largest fair the SEC has ever hosted with over 10,000 attendees expected, Borawski said. There will be over 500 companies looking for potential candidates to hire for open job positions and internships.
If students are planning to attend one of the SEC fairs, Borawski recommends students to plan which company booths they wish to speak with. A master list of all of the companies and booth locations can be found on their website.
“A&M students are some of the best in the nation, and to be able to set them up for success in future career endeavors is our goal,” Borawski said. “There is such a high demand for A&M engineering students. I hope students would realize the potential that they have and be confident of their ability as [engineers].”
General engineering freshman Stefan Salaices plans on attending the career fair for honors students. He plans on specializing in aerospace or mechanical engineering.
“I’m considering what opportunities I could do with [both],” Salaices said.“You get the opportunity to explore different [careers] and then set your eyes on one.”
Although he is heavily interested in specializing in aerospace or mechanical engineering, Salaices said he wants to remain open-minded to other possibilities like pursuing the field of artificial intelligence, or AI.
Biomedical engineer junior Eleanor McLeod, SEC career fair co-chair, said she encourages all attendees to be confident and prepared.
McLeod said she recommends attendees prepare and practice their elevator pitch, or “a one-minute spiel where they can brag about themselves.”
“The career fair is crucial for the transition from [being a] student to the real world,” McLeod said.
McLeod and Borawski both expanded on all of the work that goes into planning and executing each career fair and said the events sponsored by student organizations are volunteer based. McLeod and Borawski said there was a lot of work and time their organization’s members put into organizing the SEC events.
“You see students get excited and explore jobs. It means a lot,” McLeod said.
Borawski and McLeod said they are looking forward to seeing all of the attendees at the event and hope they find great success as engineers.
“We’re all smart. We’re all Aggie engineers, and that says enough in itself,” McLeod said.
