<p>GP</p>
<p>I was wondering if you could fill me in a little bit more about the dinners. I know that my brother had numerous companies take him out for dinner before he graduated. Is this a practice generally reserved for full-time hires? In other words, do companies do this for interns and co-ops? I have yet to have any dinner invites lol, but I still have two summers between now and when I graduate.</p>
<p>Usually, you take out your top candidates and try to sell them on the company. I would also take out current co-ops/interns if they were back in school as a treat (and so they could talk up the company to the recruits). </p>
<p>Since full-time hires are "more important", those are the people generally taken out to dinner. The only time I ever took an internship candidate out to dinner was when I was told to take the son of the COO out. He ended up going to work for a different company, anyway (I guess he didn't want to be known as the son of the COO and have all his accomplishments second-guessed).</p>
<p>One of the most informative posts I've read. </p>
<p>aibarr and GP , your posts have really given me some hope because I was thinking of <em>not</em> going to the next career fair. </p>
<p>I have seen some companies that no one really looks at. The HR people are bored and just move back and forth / sitting on a chair. This is probably because they require US citizenship/ or commitment to work after internship( rising juniors cant really commit). I think hanging around them for a while and talking about other stuff can make you look more communicative. This applies if your actually looking for a job with the company.</p>
<p>It is important to stand out from the crowd. I noticed many of the company reps just throw out the same pitch to everyone and they end up telling the kid to check out their site and hand them some merchandise.
Some booths had lines for the whole time of the fair. Imagine how many people those reps have met. Just another different face on the same suite. The last career fair i dropped by, i didn't even bother dressing up for since i was just walking through campus. I was wearing a dark sweater and a cashmier jacket, but def not a suite like every one else.
Out of three booths i've visited, I was invited to Bauer Compressor's manufacturing plant for a tour. Unfortunately my school schedual did not work with their prefered co-op hours. Small talk is important. They HR liked me because i made a comment about using their products and being formiliar with the industries they are involved in.</p>
<p>The other companies i spoke with was Locheed, and another military type defense war tatical place. Both of them just gave the typical pitch.</p>
<p>silver, good post. I too realized how annoying it is when they tell people to apply online. Whats the point of showing up to a career fair if your going to apply without reference( school ).</p>
<p>I just checked my school's spring career fair book and its as if half the companies from Fall decided not to register for the event. Its terrible.
The guards dont allow anyone without a suit so its not possible to show up without one.</p>
<p>I have to say, our career services office is worthless. I would love to explain, but people would ignore this post as a whole.</p>
<p>I'll relate my D's successful experience with engineering internships: </p>
<p>She does every career fair, mainly as an opportunity to practice her communication skills (being articulate, eye contact, etc), but no offers have come of them. Instead, she got her first internship by applying to specific openings posted on the company's web site. She had signed up with them to receive an auto-email whenever a posting went up that met her criteria, enabling her to respond immediately. That turned out to be crucial. </p>
<p>It really helped that she had a great resume - GPA 3.8 or 3.9 while maintaining a campus job and leadership position in res hall government. Another company in our hometown saw D's resume on the school's web site (updated to include first internship) and invited her to interview based only on that; she got the job, without every having pursued it (she's working there now, and this summer will go back to the first company)</p>
<p>Moral: maintain that GPA!, go to career fairs, but also apply on line</p>