By Christina AlexanderThe Daily Northwestern
They’re 29 percent of the engineers on Northwestern’s campus, but they’re 100 percent of the efforts behind Industry Day 2006.
The Society of Women Engineers held the 19th annual Industry Day at the Hilton Garden Inn Thursday. More than 60 corporations set up informational booths on the hotel’s first floor, using company prestige and fun freebies to lure in prospective employees.
About 520 students – dressed to the nines with resumes in hand – attended the event, which has become a must-go among NU engineers.
“We had some trouble with publicity but really you know it’s this week, the third Thursday in October every year,” said Laura MacDonald, SWE’s program director.
McCormick freshman Ankur Sisodia already has some work experience but came to the career fair to find a summer internship. He succeeded.
“I just got offered a position by Allstate,” Sisodia said. He later added that he was “in good hands.”
Sisodia attended Industry Day with fellow McCormick freshmen Jon Drake and Derek Liu. All three said they were impressed with the number of big-name companies manning booths and the recruiters’ willingness to talk to underclassmen.
“This was a great opportunity for freshmen because normally there are a lot of upperclassmen,” Sisodia said.
The trio wasn’t the only group of career fair newbies in attendance. McCormick seniors Urvi Purohit and Pranjal Patel came to the event for the first time this year looking for “anything anyone will give us.”
The biomedical engineering majors, who targeted pharmaceutical and consulting companies, said the day was helpful but that more than the number of companies, something else about the career fair stuck out to them.
“It is weird because we’re waiting in line and it’s all men ahead of us,” said Purohit while waiting to speak to a ZS Associate representative.
With female engineering undergraduates averaging 20 percent nationwide, NU is among the U.S. leaders in recruiting and maintaining women engineers. Industry Day is the largest yearly SWE event and helps focus campus attention on the group, but the majority of students attending the fair every year are male.
While the group’s members make up Industry Day’s staff, SWE President Sara Salahi said female students are also encouraged to take advantage of the event.
“We’re encouraging women to stay in the profession and if SWE has a hand in it we’re doing our job,” the McCormick senior said.
According to NU Professor Ellen Worsdall, assistant dean of McCormick and SWE’s faculty advisor, the group’s dynamic is not “super-competitive” and the women involved understand and take pride in their status on campus.
“Once you are considered a leader there is a responsibility to keep being a leader, but there’s always room for improvement,” she said. “You can’t get complacent.”
Though Northwestern has an above average percentage of female engineers on campus, SWE women said they don’t feel any more pressure.
“We just take it as ‘yes, we’re engineers,'” MacDonald said. “It’s not a huge thing.”
But to recruiters, NU students – SWE or not – are a big deal.
Pepsi Co. representative Terry Lemon said his company works around NU’s quarter schedule to hold spots open for students, even though internship positions usually fill early. His colleague, supply chain associate Adam Bazik agreed that NU students are given more consideration.
“The quote unquote pedigree really means something,” he said.
Many of the companies on hand sent female recruiters specifically for the SWE event. But being female is no special advantage when it comes to landing a job, said Salahi.
“Bottom line is they’re going to hire the best,” she said.
Reach Christina Alexander at [email protected].
