Where it all began

Jennifer Wilt can stand in the McKimmon Center, look into job applicants’ eyes, and know exactly what they’re feeling.

Just a couple of years ago, Wilt was in the same position when she met recruiters from Spirit Aerosystems at the NC State Engineering Career Fair. That encounter led to a full-time job with the company.

In February, she came back to the fair to recruit more talented NC State students.

“The fact that I got my job here, through this fair, shows that it works,” said Wilt, an aerospace engineering graduate who works in manufacturing research and development at Spirit. “People get jobs through this event.”

Wilt and dozens of other NC State engineering alumni return to campus each spring and fall to recruit for their companies at the career fair. It’s a tradition that, for many alumni, began when they landed their first jobs because of contacts they made at the fair, one of the largest events of its kind in the country.

The career fair, which was started by engineering students in 1998, has attracted as many as 4,700 job seekers and 340 employers ranging from tiny startups to Fortune 500 companies, along with lots of national laboratories and other government agencies. Many of those employers send NC State engineering graduates back to the fair to continue strong recruiting relationships with NC State.

Among those recruiters was Sharulatha Kannan, who was pursuing a degree in electrical and computer engineering when she arrived at the fair during her senior year. A conversation with a recruiter at Vanguard, the investment management company, led to an interview and a job offer. Now she is an application developer for the company.

“I can empathize with the nervousness they have,” she said of her conversations with student job seekers at the February fair. “I was on the other side, in the same position.”

Travis Mashburn, who received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from NC State, can also relate to students looking for their first jobs. He attended a fair in the spring of 2000 with an eye on Harris Corp., the communications and information technology company, after a friend signed on with the company.

“I said to myself, ‘Well, he got hired by Harris, so let me go talk to them,’” Mashburn said. “So I walked up to the guy and on the spot he invited me down to Florida for an interview.”

The interview went well, and Mashburn has been with Harris for more than a decade.

David Heath remembers showing up at the career fair with a “plan of attack.” He was about to receive a degree in construction engineering and management, and he arrived with a list of companies to target. BE&K Building Group was among them, and he was able to land a sit-down interview on the spot.

“Thirty minutes later, I thought it was a perfect fit.  They must have thought the same as they invited me to their office for a second interview, and offered me a job shortly thereafter,” said Heath, now an estimator with the company.

Alumni at the fair also praise the event itself. They find it easy to navigate and filled with NC State student volunteers willing to help out and answer questions. Many alumni catch up with old classmates at a reception for recruiters immediately following the event.

But for many graduates, just serving as a recruiter with a chance to help NC State students launch their engineering careers makes the trip to Raleigh worthwhile.

“It’s great to shake the hands and meet the people,” Heath said. “After all, I was there not long ago.”