Two weeks ago we had the Viterbi Career fair in the engineering section of campus. As a junior, I was very interested in getting my name out to recruiters and to see what company I would most like to work for over the summer. After going around to different mechanical, aerospace, and astronautical engineering firms, I decided that what I most wanted to get involved in this summer was consulting. Among the consulting firms that were at the career fair, I got a chance to speak with representatives from Deloitte, Hitachi, PWC, and Clarkston. What I found most encouraging was recruiters’ enthusiasm to be at USC. Among the aerospace firms I talked to, companies like Boeing stuck out because of the quantity of engineers they hire out of USC. It gives the engineering community a sense that you are less competing against your fellow engineers for jobs at these companies, and more working together to try to make relevant contributions in your field.
Additionally, many of these companies don’t just come to career fairs and leave. I have already been back to a Deloitte info session held on campus to give students a better look at what life is like as a technical consultant. Events like these really show that these companies are invested in USC students, and that they aren’t simply going through the motions when they step onto our campus.
I don’t know the final count of the number of companies that were there, but it seemed to be nearly 100. To have so many companies actively interested in recruiting USC engineers is a blessing, especially in today’s economy, and it is something that keeps me excited about my education here at USC.