The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering hosted a meet and greet expo on Wednesday for students to meet with representatives from a variety of companies, such as ExxonMobil and Apple. No suits or resumes were required throughout the event. Ashiqa Momin, an electrical engineering freshman who attended the event, said this put her at ease.

“It’s kind of intimidating for me to go to expos all dressed up with a resume handy, because I’m still a new student, and I don’t have a lot of things on my resume yet,” Momin said. “Going to events like these where I can just meet companies and not have to know all that much background information on them is kind of nice.”

Recruiters and company representatives were able to network with students in a more comfortable setting said Melanie Collins, recruiting manager for Halliburton.

“The most important thing students should expect to gain from this event is just feeling comfortable and knowing what kind of questions to ask at the career fairs,” Collins said. “Coming to events like these can help students narrow down at least who needs to be at the top of their list.”

Open to electrical and computer engineering students and all levels of experience, the expo offered students an opportunity to see the atmosphere of recruiting expos. 

“It gives us an opportunity to really get to know the people that work at the company in a way that makes us feel like equals,” said Ashlynn Turbett, electrical engineering junior. “There’s just more casual conversation about what the company is about, which I like better than other expos.”

While many freshmen got their first taste of what a career fair was like, Brent Austgen, engineering graduate student, said he hoped to walk away with a job.

“I worked as a high-performance computing engineer at Intel for four years before I entered the master’s program, so I’ve seen a little bit of office life,” Austgen said. “In the classroom, you don’t learn about all of the applications that are out there in the real world. You only learn those mostly by going to the representatives of the companies and asking questions, getting a feel for the industries and the opportunities that exist so you know better how to brand yourself.”