Packed Career Fair a Boon for Graduating Engineers

The Menasha Corporation may lack the high profile of an IBM or General Electric, but it found a clever way to get noticed among the throng of companies at last week’s engineering Career Connection.

Its strategy: Stylish marketing and cool freebies.

The Neenah-based company’s attention-grabbing information booth at the annual fair, held Sept. 16-18 at Engineering Hall, enticed students with neon lettering, peppered with candid photos of college-age models. “4 years. 103 mid-terms and exams. 1200 hours of studying,” read the company’s message. “NOW WHAT?”

Students willing to stop, chat and file resumes were rewarded with some of the fair’s funkier giveaways, including miniature footballs and keychain compasses with a floating globe inside.

“We’re hoping the display catches their eye and gets them to think about our company,” says Menasha corporate recruiter Diana Friis.

Fair season Other schools and colleges also hold career fairs for their students. Here are details on a few: The School of Business held its annual Career Forum on Sept. 15 at the Councourse Hotel, with more than 125 companies in attendance. The School of Education will hold its annual Wisconsin Educational Recruitment Fair on June 10, 1998, at LaFollette High School in Madison. Last June, more than 50 school districts from around the country were represented.

Menasha’s efforts at higher visibility are a telling sign of the times for recruiters, especially those attracting engineers and computer scientists. “The competition for these students is pretty fierce,” says Friis.

It’s considered a banner market for anyone knowing their way around a computer. Shortages of new college graduates are being reported in many electronics-related fields, such as computer programming, software engineering, computer network managers and analysts, and industrial engineering.

Starting salaries reflect that shortage: In 1996-97, UW–Madison electrical and computer engineering graduates averaged starting salaries of $42,383, while computer science graduates averaged $42,983.

Sandra Arnn, director of the College of Engineering’s Career Services office, says companies are stepping up efforts to recruit on college campuses, especially in the fall semester. Most companies want the opportunity to choose among December, May and August graduates, and conduct interviews while the largest pool of students is still available, she says.

Career Connection 97, which was sponsored by Arnn’s office and the POLYGON Engineering Student Council, attracted 150 companies this year. Most of the major computer firms were there, including Intel, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, IBM and Gateway 2000.

The fair is a first introduction for students. Arnn says the interviewing season begins Sept. 29, and the office already has a record-breaking 8,000 interviews lined up through the semester, compared to last year’s semester total of 6,000 interviews.

Some students who weaved through traffic jams among the recruiting booths last week were pleased and a little surprised by the great job market.

“It’s amazing,” says Jason Och, a senior in electrical and computer engineering. When he enrolled in 1992, Och says headlines at the time were dominated by stories about major layoffs and downsizing in the manufacturing sector. “But with the Internet explosion, there’s a bigger demand for us,” he says.

Och says he’s already considering two job offers, but his strategy is to be patient: “You look a lot more selectively, and you really try to narrow down what you want and where you want it.” He’s set his sights on the aerospace industry, preferably in the Southwest.

“It’s fun knowing there’s a lot of hiring going on,” he says, “but people still worry about the same things they always worry about. You still need to have a good resume and do well in interviews. If it were so easy, they’d be handing out job offers on the spot, which they’re not.”

The Intel Corp., one of the largest employers of UW–Madison engineering students, brought a team of four recruiters to campus to interact with students. “Being here is extremely important,” says recruiter Lynn Baker. “Wisconsin is a very instrumental school for us; it’s in our top 10.”

Last year, the company hired 50 UW–Madison students as either full-time staff or interns, and will hire at least that many again this year, Baker says. But Intel has a major task in keeping up with growth, she says, and new hires will be in the thousands.

“There are only so many students, and there is so much growth in our industry,” Baker says. “There may not be enough students to fill the need.”