The 2017 Networking Event brought companies to campus for two days of interviewing, September 11-13. In all, 25 companies and 42 interviewing teams conducted over 350 interviews of students in the program – fresh off an intensive summer of labs and course work.
The interviews were preceded by a company dinner Monday, September 11th, in the newly remodeled Erb Memorial Student Union Ballroom. Student representatives from all three cohorts (polymers, semiconductors and optics) delivered speeches highlighting their experiences and learnings from the summer and shared laughs with industry guests at their own expense.
Program director Dr. Stacey York spoke with pride about the talents of the 2018 class and Chemistry Professor Darren Johnson announced the internship program's move into the new Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.
Early Tuesday morning, students gathered outside the EMU Ballroom once again to anxiously drink coffee and nibble on pastries as they awaited their first interviews. And then the fun began. Students reported that though the first interview was intimidating, they found their feet as the day wore on and could often be seen in the waiting area outside the ballroom laughing with other students as they prepared for the next interview. Almost everyone hit their stride by mid-day.
"The networking interview event was an altogether incredible experience. Initially, I was very nervous, but as time went on that feeling was replaced with gratitude to be there," noted Leise Maynard, a student in the semiconductor track.
Kaelt Simpson, a student in the polymer track noted that getting through the interviews was really about getting your head in the right space. "The most surprising thing was coming to the realization that the interviewers were just people too. We’d been told that a lot, but actually having that realization sink in during the final networking dinner, was freeing. It really reminded me of what one of our amazing guest speakers said about personal connections in interviews: ”Ask yourself: is this someone you would want to be stuck in an airport with?”
And so begins the next phase of life.
Companies attending this year's event are listed below.
Companies Represented:
Arclin, Brewer Science, Digilens, Electro Scientific Industries, Emerald Kalama Chemical, FiberGuide Industries, FormFactor, Hexion, Hitachi HTA, HP, IPG Photonics, Johnson & Johnson, Keysight Technologies, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lockheed Martin Aculight, Lonza, Los Alamos National Lab, Microchip, Nanohmics, nLight, Photonics, Qorvo, Stowers Institute, Taiyo America, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Timbercon, and WR Grace.
