More than 100 employers from computer, healthcare, electronics, financial, construction, environmental, and other industries gathered Feb. 18, 2010 for the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Spring Career Fair to recruit for full-time positions, co-ops, and summer internship programs.
"We exceeded our goals for both company and student attendance," said Jeanette Doyle, director of WPI's Career Development Center, who noted that a record 1,300 WPI students attended the fair. "I spoke with a number of company representatives who told me it was their goal to hire WPI students because they hit the ground running and have excellent training in project management and problem solving, thanks to the university's innovative project-based curriculum.
"As in the past, this year's fair was a testament to the quality of our students, as well as to the health of many of the business segments that hire WPI students," Doyle added. "I was extremely pleased with the number of employers who registered for the Career Fair. We saw an increase in employer attendance from last year, which is a strong economic indicator for our students as they search for internships and full-time opportunities. We also saw many new organizations participate in the fair along with some of our top hiring companies."
Laura Bevelaqua, a college recruiter with Cambridge, Mass.-based CDM, said the company has considerable success recruiting at WPI. She said the university is one of the firm's 26 target schools. "Students from WPI have a great skills set that matches what we're looking for," she said. "The fact that the WPI education is heavily focused on research projects is what really stands out for us. We need people who have not only classroom training, but also real hands-on, in-the-field training. Project management is very important to us, and the WPI projects experience helps students develop that skill. We're hiring all across the nation in all engineering fields, but we're also looking for people with environmental studies and construction project management degrees. Economically, hiring has started to pick up over the past six months, and we're hoping to fill some of those jobs with WPI students."
For Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies Corp. (Pratt & Whitney) representative Natalia Dragoman, the reason for attending the Career Fair was simple: "We love WPI, and we find top talent here. The quality of the students is high, and they have a great reputation of being well-rounded, solid engineers. Our experience with WPI graduates has been very positive."
Gregg Lupaczyk, a principal design engineer at West Windsor, N.J.-based Tyco, said the company is considering an expansion and is looking to WPI to help fill some of the full-time jobs it has available: electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, software engineer, and two internships. "We’ve hired many WPI graduates; they are well-prepared and thoughtful problem solvers, and they get the job done."
On March 25, 2010, WPI will hold its annual Biotechnology and Bioengineering Career Fair from noon to 4 p.m. in the Campus Center Odeum.
