The career fair this year was very informative for me. Being a Mechanical Engineer, I was looking for companies who I thought would need my specialized skills. I stumbled upon some premier players of industry such as Bell Helicopter, DRS Infrared Technologies, and Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc. Let the handshakes commence! I'm a fan of the 'wink-and-the-gun' greeting myself.
Every booth had its respective free trinkets. Frito-Lay was passing out their plastic potatoes and single-serve bags of chips, which was nice because I hadn’t had lunch yet, and I had recently lost my other plastic potato. Across the aisle, Bell Helicopter had its helicopter-shaped pencil erasers and temporary tattoos like you would get out of the vending machines from CiCi’s…what am I, 8 years old? But the real reason the companies and I were here at this moment, was not because of the free-stuff. The reason we were here was so underclassmen could gain valuable experience at networking with potential employers, and upperclassmen could possibly find a job or internship upon graduating.
I, being a junior in the MEE program, was looking for an internship and was especially glad to stop at the DRS booth, because they seemed sincerely interested in my knowledge of a certain program called Pro Engineer. They even talked about the possibility of full-time Co-Op, which is similar to an internship. A Co-Op, for those of you who don’t know, is when you work for a company, get paid a salary, while at the same time receiving course credit towards you major…Deal. With an internship, no course credit is given. I’ll have to check back with them soon.
Above all, very glad that I attended this year. I think I’ll get lucky, and should be on my way very soon to gaining some quality experience in industry. Thanks UNT CENG and fellow Career Center cohorts for organizing this great opportunity!
