The Florida A&M-Florida State University College of Engineering hosted its Engineering Day for FSU’s Alumni Center on Tuesday.
Eager students dressed in business attire quickly filled the Alumni Center to seek opportunities from the roughly 60 companies that participated with job openings and internships to offer students.
“The turnout just keeps increasing,” said Melissa Forges, an engineering employer relations and recruitment services employee. “Not only with the students, but the employers also.”
Forges said she was excited for the turnout. Last fall semester, she said, 800 students received jobs, co-ops and internships.
According to a handout at Engineering Day, the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering invites hundreds of employers and companies to Engineering Day. Each year it tries to broaden its search and bring in a diversity of companies.
One of the companies that participated was Kiewit, a heavy civil construction and mining company. Kiewit is responsible for building bridges, roads and infrastructure and has attended Engineering Day for eight years.
“We’re looking for civil engineers,” said Ashleigh Watson, recruiting manager for Kiewit. “We have full-time positions and have about 15 to 20 positions for fall interns.”
Nandi Brown, a third-year civil engineering student from Tallahassee, found her first Engineering Day very productive.
“It was awesome,” Brown said. “It’s a great event for networking and seeing what different companies have to offer and what you have to offer them.”
Brown said she wants to work for a company centered on the environment and have productive meetings with great employers that focused on her area.
Christopher Charles, a second-year construction engineering student from Miami at FAMU, attended Engineering Day for the first time as well.He saw this event as a chance to grow in his field and to get an internship.
“I want to become a project manager after school and become a stable individual,” Charles said. “So it’s good and exciting for me to get out here and network in this type of environment.”
With five fields of engineering, the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering brought some of the biggest engineering employers that represent each focus, Forges said.
“We have qualified students,” she said. “We have the best here at the College of Engineering, and we want the employers to know that, so we bring in top-notch industry leaders to connect with our top students.”