Engineering students look for jobs at fair

and Todd Greenbarg Almost 800 students from the School of Engineering and Applied Science crammed into the Towne Building yesterday in search of jobs and summer internships at the 14th annual Engineering Career Planning Fair. Attending the forum were 71 different companies, ranging from Motorola and Bell Atlantic to Proctor & Gamble and Anderson Consulting Firm. The fair stressed the importance of each field of engineering, whether it be systems, environmental, material, or computer science. Companies came from as far as Florida and California in an attempt to recruit some of the the top engineers at the University. Career Planning and Placement Service and the Engineering Student Activities Council (ESAC) co-sponsored the event. CPPS Assistant Director of Engineering Kenneth Oyer said the fair was the largest ever. "Going back to 1985, there were only 45 to 47 companies attending," Oyer said. "It reached its peak in 1989 when 69 companies attended, went down ever since, and now has gone back to the largest ever at 71." The fair took up all three levels of the Towne Building. Both students and business representatives said the location of the event allowed for the greatest interaction between the two groups. "I'm really happy with the fair's location," said Leon Podolsky, vice president of Logic Works Corporation. "We've had quite a bit of traffic, especially the computer science majors my company is looking for. It's great that they put [the fair] here in this building where the students have classes." Students said they appreciated the convenience of having so many different fields of engineering represented by the diversity of companies present. "It was a great opportunity for engineering students to see opportunities that exist in the real world," Wharton and Engineering senior and Society of Women Engineers President Rachana Patel said. "This year we saw a significant increase in technological displays," said Engineering senior and ESAC President InYup Park. "Although the fair was for all engineering students, the focus was on undergraduate internships and permanent jobs." Companies were notified in early June of the fair. Students worked with CPPS during the summer to contact businesses. "Volunteers called the companies and put up flyers," said ESAC Career Day Coordinator and Engineering senior Alaina Cerini. "There was a right balance for majors, in that there were companies looking for all different types." Many company representatives present were University alumni, according to Park. And this helped many students interact more freely with the groups, he added. "I find the caliber of the students to be very high," Proctor & Gamble representative and University graduate Dennis Bonsall said. "At Penn, we always get good people so we decide to come back year after year." "There was a record number of students and a record number of companies," Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington said. "It's a great program for everyone involved."