<p>Can someone please explain your experience with career fairs, or any initiatives the career services launched? Or any recruiting stories in general. </p>
<p>For example:
"I'm a political science major and speak 4 languages. My advisor e-mailed me to meet him in the XYZ building, Room 12345 and to wear a suit. The next thing I knew I was sitting in the room with the Department of Homeland Security."</p>
<p>I was an engineer. The centerpiece of recruiting for us is the Engineering Expo, where hundreds of companies come and you whore your resume out to as many people as you can in hopes of getting a couple on campus interviews.</p>
<p>My freshman year I didn’t get any call backs. I ended up getting an internship when I cold called the WVDOT and convinced them that Materials Science Engineering is basically Civil Engineering so I should be eligible.</p>
<p>Sophomore year I did get a couple call backs. I ended up with on campus interviews for two companies, and I got an offer from one of them, which I took.</p>
<p>Junior year I got a few call backs and 3 on campus interviews. One lead to an offer while another lead to an on-site interview. I didn’t end up taking either for financial reasons. I got an internship that year because I knew someone that knew someone that knew where an opening was.</p>
<p>My senior year since I had three internships under my belt I could be pretty selective. I straight up told one company that if they didn’t offer me something before December I would already have something somewhere else, and I ended up accepting a position in November. Basically I just dressed up nice, went to the booths of the companies I was interested in, gave them my resume and talked with them a bit, and waited for a call back. I had a couple on campus interviews, one of which lead to an offer that I didn’t end up accepting. One company went straight to on-site, and after two rounds of on-site interviews and a corporate interview in Toronto I accepted their job.</p>
<p>So yeah, go to the career fairs and be personable, and also make sure your professors know who you are and what sort of jobs you’re looking for. They can be your “someone who knows someone” but won’t be unless you give them a reason to remember you.</p>
<p>There’s a program called the IC-CAE (Intelligence Community-Center for Academic Excellence) which is federally funded and administered through ODNI. For people interested in careers in intelligence fields, this is the student organization you want to join. They offer to send people to seminars and simulations for free. They bring in speakers and hold career fairs. They bring recruiters from CIA, DHS, DNI and many other intelligence agencies. Lots of cool opportunities. Just my experience, and Im sure there are similar organizations for people interested in other career fields as well.</p>