More than a thousand engineering students participated in the Fall 2020 UH Engineering Career Fair, sponsored by the Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, which used the Symplicity platform for the center’s first ever virtual career fair.
Janice Quiroz Perez – the director of the Engineering Career Center – said the final tally was 1,044 students, who got to meet on Sept. 10 with 450 representatives from 80 companies like Air Liquide, Baker Hughes, Chevron, Enterprise Products, Phillips 66, HPE, LJA Engineering and many more.
“About 3,800 video chats took place between employer representatives and students, with an average chat time of 11 minutes,” Perez said. “More than 800 video chats were 15 minutes or longer!”
According to feedback from these companies, Perez said the fair generated cumulative interest in 1,400 candidates.
“That feedback from employers has been positive, with many stating that they would participate in another event using this platform,” she said. “They were very satisfied with the students they engaged with during our career fair.”
The Engineering Career Fair Committee (CFC) helped the career center team prepare students for the virtual career fair in the weeks leading up to the event by hosting workshops and events, including the Engineering Internship Talk Event, leading the first ever virtual Engineering Networking Social on Zoom, and were a huge support for Engineering Resume Café. The CFC consists of student leaders from the UH student chapters of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, and the National Society of Black Engineers.
“The CFC worked with our team to create processes, shifting from in-person event support efforts to virtual for both students and employers during the event,” Perez said. “Collaboratively, we created virtual help desks in Microsoft Teams and Zoom to assist during the event.”
Perez said that looking ahead, the center would host students and employers once again at its next virtual career fair, currently scheduled for early February 2021.