Did any of you TWWers go today? I want the low-down.

Were there some good employers? Did they all just say to visit their website? Did the military have a booth?

2/7/2008 8:53:52 PM

Same here, wondering how was it? and how does tomorrow look if anything has changed last minute? I would've gone but I felt like shit all day and was required to stay in my classes for projects.

2/7/2008 9:07:24 PM

i worked it and will be working it again tomorrow... good employers, none i talked to said visit website, marines had a booth.

oh yea and showering will improve your chances of getting a job
dont come at 9:30 when all of the indians are there, you wont be able to breath

2/7/2008 9:08:08 PM

I went, got roped into talking to the government monetary guys they seemed just desperate to talk to anyone.. I had fun watching the mass of indians try to talk to Qualcomm and/or Cisco, it was a mad house. found some interesting companies that I would not have thought about. got a free mini-stapler from BMW.

Quote :

"dont come at 9:30 when all of the indians are there"

[Edited on February 7, 2008 at 9:14 PM. Reason : good advice. tommorow i am not going till like 1 or 2]

2/7/2008 9:12:34 PM

I'm hitting it up tomorrow. I had too many classes today.

I need to print off some more resumes and shit.

And I'd advise not going in the afternoon: last year everyone had run out of free shit and packets and info sheets by the time you got there.

Also, this two-day split thing is retarded.

Quote :

"none i talked to said visit website"

That's really weird. Everyone last year was all about applying online in order to get an on-campus interview.

[Edited on February 7, 2008 at 9:17 PM. Reason : .]

2/7/2008 9:15:57 PM

^ i think companies may have caught on to people not coming as much cuz they got turned off by the online resume entry.

[Edited on February 7, 2008 at 9:21 PM. Reason : but I am just guessing.]

2/7/2008 9:20:45 PM

the 2 day split is so that new companies can come, only about 5 from today are going to be there tomorrow, the rest are new

2/7/2008 9:20:58 PM

^I know WHY they did it, but I think it's silly. That way, if I can only come on one day (there was basically no way to skip four classes), I've missed half of them. The second-day people aren't all new (at least not the ones hiring CHEs).

Quote :

"i think companies may have caught on to people not coming as much cuz they got turned off by the online resume entry."

That makes sense.

[Edited on February 7, 2008 at 9:29 PM. Reason : .]

2/7/2008 9:28:38 PM

i can only go tomorrow after i get out of class at 1:15

2/7/2008 10:22:30 PM

Info on this career fair would be nice for those not in the know. Link?

2/8/2008 12:11:12 AM

http://students.engr.ncsu.edu/careerfair/

Though how you've somehow missed the giant Engineering Career Fair signs all over campus is beyond me.

2/8/2008 12:21:46 AM

^ gracias.

I'm not a student at the moment, nor an engineer.

Just out of curiosity. Could non-engineers or non-students attend this career fair, or do they check id's, employers limit it to students? I'm not planning on going, just thought it might be helpful for others.

2/8/2008 12:54:37 AM

hay nerdchick


okay.




today.
blue shirt, walking by the gym?

2/8/2008 12:57:42 AM

Quote :

"Could non-engineers or non-students attend this career fair, or do they check id's, employers limit it to students?"

Well you're supposed to "sign in" with your ID, which they swipe... and then give you a nametag

I don't know how they enforce it other than that

[Edited on February 8, 2008 at 1:07 AM. Reason : .]

2/8/2008 1:06:57 AM

as far as going to a website to apply for jobs-- its not just to be a pain in the ass. most of the time it has to do with keeping tabs on who applies so everyone has a fair shot at being considered.

i found my job at a career fair & i had to apply online for it. 2 years later and it's still working out. best job ever ever

2/8/2008 5:08:16 AM

I didn't go to the website to register or whatever

where there lots of people without name tags?

2/8/2008 6:37:05 AM

Quote :

"Could non-engineers or non-students attend this career fair, or do they check id's, employers limit it to students?""

anyone can come and get a nametag

2/8/2008 6:54:05 AM

Quote :

"Just out of curiosity. Could non-engineers or non-students attend this career fair, or do they check id's, employers limit it to students? I'm not planning on going, just thought it might be helpful for others. "

anyone can come (ie non-engineering majors, alumni, or students from other universities). But it is called the Engineering Career Fair because the companies are there recruiting engineers.

2/8/2008 7:28:02 AM

career fairs are worthless

2/8/2008 7:29:03 AM

so how are we supposed to dress for this?

2/8/2008 10:08:57 AM

most people wear a suit.

2/8/2008 10:22:22 AM

haha, yeah. wear a suit

2/8/2008 10:23:55 AM

Okay, I made my rounds. It was so much easier at 9:30 this morning than it was last year around 2 pm.

And I have a new BE&K toboggan!

Yeah, wear a suit... though I swear I was the only one in a light gray suit in the entire place. Most guys seemed to be wearing a black or navy ensemble.

[Edited on February 8, 2008 at 11:26 AM. Reason : .]

2/8/2008 11:25:43 AM

inerviewer: "so what area of electrical engineering do you wanna get into?"

me: "uhhh, im looking to uhh, processor uhhh diodes and cap cap capacitors... general electronics"

2/8/2008 2:22:26 PM

you can tell which companies do not require American Citezenship for hiring.......


the line to talk to a recruiter for each is 30 indians/arabs deep.

luckily for Cisco I knew two of the recruiters (one a classmate from sophmore year) so i got to skip to the front.

2/8/2008 2:28:07 PM

Quote :

"career fairs are worthless"

Agreed.

2/8/2008 11:11:45 PM

^ wow dude, are u kidding me. They snatch people up there all the time.

2/9/2008 2:51:52 AM

^^^^^i'm glad you liked our toboggan i was the one with the beard wearing the visor.

i disagree that career fairs are worthless, i got my interview which resulted in my job through the 06 career fair.

[Edited on February 9, 2008 at 10:07 AM. Reason : .]

2/9/2008 10:05:37 AM

got my job from the career fair last year

2/9/2008 10:46:35 AM

Quote :

"wow dude, are u kidding me. They snatch people up there all the time."

For whatever reason I never had any luck at these. I had a great GPA and tons of experience but never got anywhere by going to the career fairs. I just ended up waiting in long lines and wasting my time. Every job I've gotten has been through networking.

2/9/2008 10:55:45 AM

Quote :

"nerviewer: "so what area of electrical engineering do you wanna get into?" me: "uhhh, im looking to uhh, processor uhhh diodes and cap cap capacitors... general electronics""

I hope your joking... b/c theres no way in hell a recruiter is going to be like OH YES! exactly what I'm looking for based on this. theres a shit ton of different types of things to do that fall under EE, and knowing in general that you want to do "board design" or Digital design" or are fine with "test engineering" are very very simple and easy things to say that you can talk about.(I figure even if your joking people early in EE/CPE might not know).

The companies with the long ass lines of Middle Eastern people aren't just b/c they sponser, but they are the typically the fastest and best at what they do. And essentially put that long line of indians together as a company and you would have one HELL of a workforce. They are typically the top of the top and come over here for better educational opportunities b/c in India it's VERY selective. I had to stand in those lines also, (broadcom, Nvidia, intel) and it was worth standing in those lines b/c if I were to get a job at one of those companies it would completely kick ass.

[Edited on February 9, 2008 at 11:14 AM. Reason : .]

2/9/2008 11:12:51 AM

I think he was implying he was nervous

2/9/2008 12:22:17 PM

I just remember at one point early on in my ECE degree when your taking the first couple of classes and go to the career fair not knowing what anything that you want to do is actually called in the real world and what it entails... but in general your GPA at that point is going to get you hired or not anyways...

PS: I LOVE the free stuff at the career fair. I always go talk to the companies I want to talk to and then make a "free stuff lap" Having done recruiting at a career fair I found out that if your perfectly honest to the recruiter that you just want their free stuff and your not interested in a job while being nice they are more than happy to give it to you... there are exceptions, but for me it's even easier b/c very few companies do what I plan on doing when I graduate... So they don't even bother trying to talk me into working for them as soon as I say "I'm looking for integrated circuit level transistor design" their faces typically go blank and the doors are opened to the free stuff... I got a nice coffee mug this year, people are typically timid about asking for the nice stuff... but it's there to be given away. Energizer free batteries FTW!

[Edited on February 9, 2008 at 12:41 PM. Reason : free stuff schpiel ]

2/9/2008 12:31:52 PM

As a recruiter hell- we even swap with other companies. backpack for a bag with a cooler in it? sure! light up pen for a nifty toy? deal!
If you came up to me (Cisco) wanting free goodies but knew you weren't hirable, as long as you werent pesky and were polite, Sure! Most of us like the free goodies too and remember being in school and making our free lap go around too.

That said - as a recruiter I saw a TON of gradautes, and a handful of undergraduates. Most of the positions I was looking for, were undergrad only or undergrad preferred. If you are an engineering *undergraduate* - go! It's how I was picked up (career fair). Also, some of those LONG lines, are divided by graduate status. The line for cisco was graduates, undergrads were pulled to the front instantly. I was utterly shocked by the scant few undergrads i got to talk to. Now the job ratio probably wont be the same in the future, but still, undergrad CSC and CPE - get your tails out there!

Also- tip- dont argue with us about sponsorship stuff. We have to do what corporate/HR says they can take, for legal reasons. We have 0.0000% control over whether we can take resumes of sponsorship students of various statuses.

(forgive the bad spelling, exhausted today)

[Edited on February 9, 2008 at 1:32 PM. Reason : .]

2/9/2008 1:31:31 PM

I went in the middle of the day thursday, then went back to hit a few companies that I'd had to miss. Going late is not so good (like with half an hour left). The recruiters are burnt out from the day. OTOH, they're a lot looser with the free crap. I really like the Volvo steering wheel keychain I got.

The best, though, was seeing PARENTS talking to recruiters working the career fair for their college aged kids. There was one guy hitting the mechanical companies that I stood behind twice, and I overheard a couple of recruiters comparing how many they had each talked to. I really don't get that.

Anyhow, I really liked it, and would strongly recommend it to people. Even though I wasn't looking for summer or co-op, I'm trying to figure out who I would like to work for and it was all a good reminder of what the ultimate goal of all these classes is.

2/9/2008 7:36:05 PM

^I find it funny when the HS students are walking around with their parents

2/9/2008 8:29:32 PM

At the business one last year Target was there hiring store managers.

i laughed.

business majors are dumb.

2/11/2008 8:37:26 AM

Quote :

"For whatever reason I never had any luck at these. I had a great GPA and tons of experience but never got anywhere by going to the career fairs. I just ended up waiting in long lines and wasting my time."

learn how to market yourself better. Most companies only have a small number of slots for interviews (especially the ones from out-of-town). Lots of people have good grades and experience...you need to make yourself look better than them if you want to hear anything more than "post your resume on our website and we'll get back to you".

a tip from my experiences as a recruiter: go first thing in the morning. for most companies, interview slots are filled first-come-first-serve. even if qualified candidates come by in the afternoon, it's more the likely we'll turn them away for on campus interviews because we're full.

also, take 30 minutes the night before and make a list of companies to talk to and understand something about what they do....even if it's just a general idea. it doesn't look very good when you walk up to a booth and ask "so what do you guys do?" or mispronounce the company's name.





[Edited on February 11, 2008 at 9:13 AM. Reason : h]

2/11/2008 8:58:45 AM

Oh, it's been years since I've gone to a career fair. I never had any trouble getting jobs it just seemed odd that I was able to easily get great jobs during and after college but yet had a 0% success rate at the career fairs.

2/11/2008 9:20:20 AM

cool...i didnt for the end of my post to be directed towards you. just fairgoers in general.

2/11/2008 9:26:29 AM

I never really had too much luck at career fairs either. I went to every single one I was able to, wore a suit, had good GPA, tons of experience, and talked with confidence and stuff. Before every one of them, if I wasn't familiar with a company at all I did a bunch of research and found out about some projects I would be interested in. When I talked to the representatives, they seemed genuinely interested and wrote stuff on my resume or whatever, but I never heard anything.

I DID get tons of call backs after applying to companies through my own means though, I guess I was just unlucky with the career fairs.

2/11/2008 11:05:27 AM

Quote :

"They are typically the top of the top and come over here for better educational opportunities b/c in India it's VERY selective. "

DEY TUKKING MI JERBBSSSSS!!!!!

2/11/2008 11:22:04 AM

^^ ditto. i was the exact same and never heard back from one company at the career fair. elsewhere, i had great luck.

2/11/2008 11:43:58 AM

Quote :

"also, take 30 minutes the night before and make a list of companies to talk to and understand something about what they do....even if it's just a general idea. it doesn't look very good when you walk up to a booth and ask "so what do you guys do?" or mispronounce the company's name."

I agree that people sho9uld do research first, but that 30 minute figure assumes that people already know atleast something about some of the companies to be able to pick them out from the list. Past career fairs have had a lot of the same companies on both days . . . this year almost every booth had a different company on the second day. There were around 195 companies looking for ME's. Even assuming you can eliminate half of them at a first glance . . . it is going to take a lot longer than 30 minutes going through a list that long to see what companies you are interested in and learn more about. Then the problem is that you get to the career fair and you can't remember one company from the next because you have looked through so much. And even when you know about the company and don't ask "So what do you guys do?" . . . they answer it anyways.

2/11/2008 12:26:27 PM

Quote :

"really like the Volvo steering wheel keychain I got."

I take it back. The damn thing popped open and scattered my keys halfway across Teeter yesterday when I pulled it out of my pocket to hand over my vic card.

career fair schwag always seems so great when you get it, and then you realize its all just a bunch of crap.

2/13/2008 8:11:17 PM

lol, I remember this real nice key chain that bmw gave out a couple years ago. The day after I got it I lost one of the little end pieces to the wire that formed the loop and the thing was useless.

2/13/2008 10:58:08 PM

^^^That's why you write down some key points about the company on a piece of paper and stick it in a folder with your resumes.

2/14/2008 10:40:54 AM