Engineering students and companies are meeting face to face at the annual UAlberta ESS Engineering Career Fair.
(Edmonton) Hundreds of engineering students began their job search visiting with dozens of companies at the annual Engineering Students' Society Career Fair, running Jan 13 and 14 in the ETLC Solarium.
Despite a worsening economic situation, the first day of the career fair had a healthy mix of potential employees, from small and mid-sized firms to global leaders like Shell and TECK from the resource sector, and big technology names like Microsoft and Garmin setting up on campus to meet with U of A engineering students.
Some students expressed concern about the job situation in Alberta but felt encouraged by the turnout of companies.
"I thought that due to the economy there would be fewer companies," said Yahui Xiang, who recently completed her MSc in chemical engineering. "But there are a lot of them here and some are doing well and will be hiring new graduates and summer students."
Among those companies was high-tech company Arista, which is currently hiring software engineers for its offices in Vancouver, B.C. Nicholas Tan, an engineer with Arista, says the company decided to take part in the ESS Career Fair for the first time this year, after doing a little research on the U of A's rankings.
"It's competitive for software engineers right now-not just for software engineers but among employers as well-so we thought it would be a good idea to come here," said Tan, who added that he had met with some computer engineering students who "in my mind are potentially great software engineers."
Of course, not all the companies attending the two-day event are hiring at the moment, but all were willing to meet with students and accept resumes for future reference.
Lauren Mazuryk, human resources manager with Westpower Equipment, has attended the career fair for four years now.
"Typically at this time of the year we don't have our hiring plans in place and people from some other companies here are saying they're just getting their budgets now," she said.
"But it is important for us to come here and meet students and collect resumes-and frankly, I have hired people out of the pile of resumes I collect here."
Mazuryk added that students might want to focus a little more on mid-sized and smaller companies in this economy because those firms are often able to find and exploit new opportunities.
"Our company is very entrepreneurial," she said. "We do look for opportunities to grow. We're willing to go into new areas."
So while the economy is in undeniable turmoil, there is hope among companies and students.
"I'm always optimistic," said Xiang. "I've had friends graduate during bad economic times and find jobs."
She's also grateful for assistance from the Faculty of Engineering in connecting students and alumni with potential employers.
"The Engineering Employment Centre helped me a lot," she said. "I really appreciate the resources the university puts into this."