Engineers are in high demand, and Ann Jones, assistant director for career services
at the University of Wyoming, says many companies look forward to recruiting UW students
at the two yearly STEM job fairs. “In the past, we’ve heard many engineering companies say that UW engineering students
were a hidden jewel. Now, when they come to the job fairs, they’ll say, ‘It looks
like the secret is out,’ because there are so many other engineering companies there.”
“When prospective employers come to the job fair, we ask them why they keep coming
back, and they say that our students present themselves very well, are well prepared,
have a great work ethic and work well in groups,” says Len Lutz, who leads the job
placement, internship and professional skills development programs for the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
The engineering and STEM job fairs now host 55 to 75 companies per fair. In addition
to offering full-time jobs, many companies offer internships. “Internships allow students
to test-drive the career. For the company, it’s valuable because it basically allows
them to do a job interview for three months,” Jones says.
Additional companies send job and internship openings. Jones says, “Just between April
and June, we probably had 40 different companies sending us job opportunities for
full time and/or summer.”