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 Northeastern career fair allows students to connect directly with employers, making meaningful impressions

The university welcomed 42 employers — including big names in health care and STEM — to the Cabot Physical Education Center. The event was attended by over 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students.

Students interact with employers at a university career fair.
Northeastern students met directly with employers during a career fair on Wednesday, Oct. 9. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Northeastern University student Jennifer Gong grew up in a small town in northeast China that is home to Hisense, a major appliance and electronics manufacturer.

She remembers using their technology and products in her family’s home.

So, it was a bit of a small-world phenomenon when she met with a Hisense representative on Wednesday at a career fair on Northeastern’s Boston campus. 

“It was fun to (already) know the company and pass on my resume,” says Gong, a fifth-year student studying data sciences and math.

Northeastern welcomed 42 employers — including big names in health care and STEM — to the Cabot Physical Education Center. The event was attended by over 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students.

For employers, and those looking for co-ops and full-time positions, it was all about the personal connection that can only be made by face-to-face interactions.

“Being able to see the types of companies who are looking to hire and make a human contact is a lot more helpful than looking at a website,” says Anya Dasgupta, a second-year student in computer science looking for a co-op opportunity.

Max Deppisch, a second-year physics student, agrees. 

“My application is all words, but I feel like I can make myself a better candidate by talking to people,” he says.

“It puts a face to the application,” adds Shayna Zibel, a fellow physics major and second-year student.

Meanwhile, employers — big and small, multinational and Boston-based, and public and private — set up tables to recruit students.

“We’ve built up our program over the past couple of years from a single intern to 10 internships and six co-ops,” says Tyler Hines, representing the valve train technologies division at Cummins Inc., a Connecticut-based company that designs, manufactures and distributes engines, filtration and power generation products.

He was a first-time participant at the career fair. 

“We hope to get some good candidates from it and come back for more,” Hines says.

Dana Flood from Mulhern & Kulp, a structural engineering company focused on residential work, was looking to recruit a civil engineer with a focus on structural engineering for the firm’s new Boston office. 

He says that, in addition to possessing technical excellence, the applicant must be motivated, intellectually curious and have to have the ability to effectively communicate with members of the field team and architects — as well as be a good fit with the three other team members currently in the Boston office.

Mulhern & Kulp is also looking for co-ops. The firm started in Philadelphia and had co-ops there, so Northeastern was the logical place to look.

Every year, the university connects thousands of co-op students with nearly 5,000 industry partners in 150 countries.

“We have had great success with it and have seen the advantages of it,” Flood says of co-ops. 

Max Wilderman of pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb was looking for a broad array of students for fall and spring co-ops and full-time positions for the company’s Cambridge research and development site and its manufacturing site in Devens, Massachusetts.

“Their leadership is very important,” Wilderman says of potential applicants. 

“Being able to explain any challenges, what they learned from it and if they changed something because of it is very impressive,” he says.

Second-year civil engineering student Ben Chan says that there was a “good variety” of companies at the fair. He says he is pretty open-minded about finding his first co-op.

“The first thing is I want interesting and meaningful work in the type of projects I’m doing,” he says. “Second, the office culture and environment and the co-ops role on a day-to-day basis is important.”

Meanwhile, Gong was happy to make a personal connection while attending her first career fair.

It’s not like that at all universities, she says.

“I’ve heard friends say at other schools you go and wait in line for an hour to talk to a company and then you’re told to apply online,” Gong says. “I was able to hand my resume to every company I talked to.”