Fall Career & Internship Fair 2015

Over 1,000 students poured into the Xfinity Center for the 2015 Computer Science Fall Career & Internship Fair.  There were 126 companies, ranging from small software development firms to Fortune 500 companies.  With so many companies, it could be a little overwhelming for some students. For Senior Eric Shiang, the sheer number of companies meant he needed to come to the fair with a plan. "[The number of companies] really made you have to pick which ones you want to talk to because there definitely wasn't enough time to look at all of them," he explained. "The cool part though was that the companies were talking a lot about the really intriguing things they were doing and it seemed like at least one company's projects or goals would really resonate with you."

With 126 companies attending, there was a lot of setup involved.  The process of involved countless emails, meetings, and resource shuffling, starting last Spring.  Planning the Fall Career & Internship Fair has unique challenges to the Spring Fair.  In the fall, you can have up to 6 career fairs in one week, many using the same space.  All while making sure they are providing professional development events for students.  These events include technical interview and resume workshops, led by professionals in the field.  This semester, representatives from Google, AOL, and Palantir gave advice and feedback to students looking to improve their interviewing skills and resumes.  "The Computer Science department is extremely helpful and dedicated to helping their students.  They go above and beyond with the workshops by bringing in recruiters to look over your resume."   Junior Alex Berlinger said of the resume workshop.

Among the familiar faces, companies like Pinterest, Walmart Technology, and Retailmenot sent recruiters for the first time, drawing long lines of interested students.  Being able to bring in new companies is just one benefit of having such a large department.  But  more than the size of the department, student participation matters.  “It’s important,” Amy Vaillancourt explained, talking about student participation.  “[F]or students to continue to make use of workshops and resources so that we as a department can grow, and continue to bring in new companies and events. It's also important for students to make the most of these opportunities for their own personal growth.”