Purdue students and companies connect at burgeoning career fair
More than 640 Purdue students networked with over 60 employers at the Engineering, Science and Tech Connect Career Fair Sept. 30 at the Campus Center in Indianapolis. The popular fair, which attracted almost 100 more students than last year, kicked off with a breakfast for the participating employers and a welcome from David Umulis, senior vice provost Purdue University for Indianapolis, and Patrick Francis, director of career relations for Indianapolis.
Umulis invited the company representatives to utilize interview rooms and meet with students in the new Career + Experience Collaboration Hub, which he called “a one-stop shop for career, internship and co-op services” housed in the Sigma Theta Tau building in Indianapolis. Purdue students in Indianapolis were able to take advantage of a unique opportunity to connect with employers, many of whom are located in and around the capital city.
“We’re proud of our students and the career readiness skills they are building during their time at Purdue,” said Katie Nelson, senior manager of career services in the Center for Career Opportunities. “An employer emailed me early the next day noting that he was impressed with the talent and confidence of Purdue students in Indianapolis.”
“We’re excited about who we saw,” said Emily Segovia, a powertrain service engineer and product specialist at Cummins, the Indiana-based company that drew the most student interest at the career fair with 155 students. Segovia personally talked to 39 students at the event, keeping in mind a list of open positions at Cummins. “We were able to match students’ skills and interests to those opportunities,” she said.
For Segovia and her colleague Julia Cilleruelo Fernández del Moral, a senior content marketing specialist at Cummins, speaking to Purdue students in Indianapolis was a homecoming. Both graduated with Purdue degrees when the programs were administrated by IUPUI. They were among fifty different company representatives at the event who are Purdue alumni and recognize firsthand how the career fair experience helps students become interns and employees.
“That’s how we originally connected with Cummins,” Cilleruelo Fernández del Moral said. “We were able to intern in the company and then eventually join full time.”
Indianapolis is home to thousands of Purdue alumni who are leading companies in the heart of the state’s industrial center. “We have CEOs, emerging leaders and so many fantastic representatives across disciplines,” Francis said. “Students can tap into their networks and learn firsthand how experiences at Purdue launched their careers.”
Kasandra Rea-Padilla, a senior studying mechanical engineering and headed to graduate school, enjoyed speaking with representatives from about 15 companies, including Cummins, Duke Energy, Shambaugh & Son, and Gaylor Electric.
“Attending the career fair was extremely helpful in expanding my professional network and exploring potential career opportunities,” said Rea-Padilla, who has already had two internships. “Each conversation gave me better insight into the company culture and projects they are working on.”
While the opportunity to attract top-tier Purdue talent drew companies to this career fair from several states away, businesses from Indiana had an even stronger showing. According to Nelson, 77% of the companies who attended are located in Indiana, providing students with numerous prospects for internships and jobs and increasing the possibility of more graduates working and living in the state after graduation.
From Indianapolis-based giants like Allison Transmission and Eli Lilly and Company to New Jersey’s L’Oréal and Washington, D.C.-headquartered Danaher Corp., Purdue students such as Quinton Pedrick, a senior in computer science, and Trace Downs, a junior cybersecurity major in Purdue Polytechnic Institute, found value in gathering insights from a wide range of companies.
“I was able to connect with about 15 companies total in under three hours, which was a great way to do a litmus test of culture for full time,” Pedrick said. “Networking before the event and following up after helps, and even if the recruiter does not have a job, they can forward along other opportunities.”
“I learned about openings at companies I would have never thought had positions for cybersecurity,” added Downs, who spoke with recruiters for Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Wabash Valley Power Alliance and the Indianapolis Airport Authority. “The recruiters I spoke to shared more about the values important to their organization rather than the roles,” he said, adding that it’s important to know their “why.”
The event was open to all Purdue students and Purdue School of Engineering and Technology alumni whose coursework, skills and interests are primarily in the engineering, polytechnic, science or business fields.
