WPI Spring Career Fair
For nearly four hours, a line snaked through WPI’s Sports & Recreation Center and out the door, filled with ambitious students and alumni ready to share their résumés at WPI’s annual Spring Career Fair on February 19. The event connected over 2,000 students and alumni with more than 180 employers, from local technology start-ups and energy providers to government defense contractors and international corporations.
"The growth of our career fairs shows companies are clearly interested in the outstanding talent and diversity of WPI students," says Steve Koppi, executive director of WPI’s Career Development Center (CDC). "There’s no better place to meet future employees who have the skills and confidence to dive right in and make an impact."
Steven Thulin, Civil Engineering ’17, and Kevin Lynch, Mechanical Engineering ’17, were both excited about the opportunity to talk to companies. It was Thulin’s first time attending the fair, but he did his research and had high hopes of getting a summer internship. Lynch says the WPI Career Fair Plus app really helped in his preparation for the Career Fair.
When asked why his company looks to recruit WPI students, alumnus Nick Solarz ’12, a software integration engineer for Kiva Systems, a subsidiary of Amazon.com and CDC corporate sponsor, says they like "the well-roundedness and the project backgrounds that students get through their Major Qualifying Project (MQP). WPI students have a good vision of the whole picture."
David Keeley ’14, a recent WPI grad working as a software engineer at Demandware, Inc., also a CDC corporate sponsor, had similar thoughts on WPI’s MQP experience. "When students come in with the MQP project work, it is essentially like starting with a year of experience," Keeley says. "It is easy to integrate students into the work environment with little to no training. We have a high demand for students who can hit the ground running when they start."
But even students without MQP experience were finding success at the career fair. Victor Chau ‘16, a biochemistry major, walked out of the fair feeling confident. "The range of companies exceeded my expectations," he says. "A company (Novo Nordisk) pulled me over, and I found it exciting to be picked out of the crowd. All of the different company representatives that I talked to were enthusiastic and now I’m even more excited about my opportunities."
