Career Fair 2022: How I landed a Coop!

Rochester Institute of Technology hosts a spectacular career fair twice a year. The career fair hosted this Fall 22 was the highlight of 2022 just like its predecessors. The career fair gives tons of opportunities to not just to find a job but gives a chance for students to interact and learn from real time industries. My experience this semester can only be described as one word, “EPIC”.  This was not my first career fair and definitely won't be the last. This is one of the largest in-person career fairs for RIT after Covid 19 pandemic. 

The career fair at RIT constitutes a lot of local companies along with many multinationals. The variety of job roles available is limitless and there is something for everyone. This humongous event was held at Gordon Field on September 21^st. The career fair is a two-day event, the first day is the fair day. The following day is interview day. In reality, a career fair is a month-long haul starting various webinars, events and tons of research. Looking back to my first career fair I can say I was way more prepared for this year’s career fair and understood how to navigate the event in the most productive manner.

This year my experience was different from my previous ones. I had a game plan that started a month before the career fair. I started registering for events and webinars hosted by career services to prepare myself for the big day. I learned about job search, how to shape your resume, how to pitch yourself to the company, interview preparation and what questions to ask. The tip that helped the most is always do your research and never go unprepared. The first step I took was preparing a role-specific resume with key terms. Then I prepared a perfect elevator pitch which gives an idea to the recruiter regarding what it is I am looking for and how I am the best candidate for it. Through the career connect website and simplicity app I jotted down the list of target companies I would focus on in the career fair along with the roles I will be applying for.  Finally, I did my research on these companies and prepared the questions I would ask them.

On the day, I arrived at the Gordon Field House at 8:00 am and I mapped out the stalls I would be going to. It was all jitters and excitement witnessing the gigantic event come to life. I had my resume, pitch and a plan to navigate the waters. The event kicked off with a great start and I started interacting with recruiters by giving the pitch and handing the resume. Many of the companies asked me instantly to apply right there and then. 

They were patient in answering my questions regarding the company and the available position. I have gained a lot of information about the latest trends and development in technology through the projects they are working on. Few of the companies I interacted with are Casana, Bosch, Bose, IDI Billing Solutions, Eagleview, Carrier and the list goes on. The total count of the companies I visited were around twenty and some more. It was an amazing opportunity to build connections and to get my resume out there. The day after the career fair we had the interview day at the very same location. I got called into an interview with IDI Billing solutions. The interview was about 30-40 minutes, and I met the recruiter who I had spoken to the day before. For the interview I reviewed my resume and went over the project work and the skills I mentioned. I revised the fundamentals related to that role and most importantly I decided what questions I want to ask my interviewer. I revisited the research I have done on that company like their story of origin and the current projects and technologies they are working with. The interview went quite well and within one week I got a call for further processing. After all these days of planning and execution I had received an offer letter for a two-block remote co-op with IDI Billing Solutions, Victor, NY. With support of career services and my academic department, verification and further arrangements were done within a few days. I remember learning about co-op education in one of the RIT graduate education webinars before joining RIT and how enticed I was at the chance of working in the industry as a part of my master's program. Now I am living the dream and the career fair was the perfect platform to make it come true.