News Release

Jobs, internships on tap for students at engineering career fair

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Student Shayan Mahdavi, who is also a Google Glass developer, talks to a recruiter.
More about Mahdavi here

San Diego, Calif., Feb. 28, 2014 -- The line of UC San Diego engineering students waiting to be admitted to the annual Disciplines of Engineering Career Fair wrapped all the way around the Price Center at UC San Diego Friday, Feb. 21. Dressed in their best business attire and with their resumes in tow, around 2,000 students crowded the center’s ballrooms, where recruiters in search of future employees set up shop.

In its 17th year, the annual DECaF event hosted recruiters from 86 companies looking to hire UC San Diego engineering students to fill internships and full-time positions.

“This event helps us solidify our professional ties with industry, but most importantly the career fair will help some UCSD students get their first full-time jobs,” DECaF Professional Development Leader Johanna Fleischman said.

Jason Cho, a fifth-year computer science student, came to DECaF in search of his first full-time position. Cho, a former intern at local companies Ilumina and L3, said he has attended DECaF every year since starting at UC San Diego and that the job fair has helped him earn summer internships and part-time work.

DECaF internal affairs lead Kevin Yin says the event is important both for those students looking for full-time positions and those just looking to get their foot in the door, like second-year computer science student Donna Yee.

Yee, who came to the job fair looking for a summer internship, said she was just excited to be able to talk to recruiters.

“I think the event is great, because it gives me a way to practice interviewing,” Yee said. “It’s hard to leave an impression when you submit a resume online, and so I really like that we’re able to talk to recruiters face to face.”

According to Fleischman, this year’s DECaF event was considerably larger than it has been in years past, thanks in part to the increase in corporate sponsors. In 2013, seven companies sponsored the annual job fair, but 2014’s DECaF event was funded by 13 corporations, including Yahoo! and local companies SDG&E, ViaSat and Broadcom.

This story was written by student writer Rachel Uda.

 

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Peregrine recruiter Nancy Truong talks to a student during DECaF 2014.

Media Contacts

Ioana Patringenaru
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-822-0899
ipatrin@ucsd.edu