Students from the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Guelph had the opportunity to meet directly with potential employers last week at the 6th Annual Tech Showcase.
“There are representatives here from 32 tech companies both local and national,” said Jennifer Pellegrino, marketing and communications specialist for the School of Computer Sciences at the U of G. “We are expecting 300 to 400 students to attend.”
The atrium of the Summerlee Science Complex at the U of G was filled with booths and reps from a variety of tech companies and agencies looking for everything from data collectors and graphic designers to hackers and spies.
“These companies are looking for summer co-op students as well as part-time and full-time employees,” Pellegrino said.
Among the recruiters were representatives from the Ministry of National Defense’s Communications Security Establishment CSE.
For security reasons, they asked that they not be photographed or identified by name.
“We are looking for the best and the brightest and we heard they were here in Guelph,” said J, a male in his late 20s.
The CSE is seeking to fill 70 to 90 positions during its Cross Canada Student Recruitment Tour.
“We are looking for co-op students for the summer as well as for full time,” said K, a female recruiter in her early 30s. “We are interviewing now for summer positions because they need top security clearance to do this work and the Global Security Assessment process takes from eight to 12 months.”
She said most students get hired full time at the end of their work terms as long as they meet the “fit factor”. The work includes such things as signals intelligence, countering hackers and protecting global infrastructure.
“All the jobs are in Ottawa,” said K. “There’s a good work/life balance. You don’t bring this work home with you. In fact you don’t even talk about it.”
If espionage isn’t your thing there were plenty more options to choose from.
“We are looking for Java script developers,” said Seth Partridge a recruiter from Intrigue Media a community marketing company with long and strong ties to Guelph. “We love Guelph and we are looking for people from Guelph to grow our business.”
Another company looking to fill co-op and full time positions is IMS out of Waterloo that specializes in connected car technology.
“We collect driving data then sell it to clients such as insurers and government agencies,” said recruiter Mark Johnston. “We hired at least one person from this event last year.”
To get an employer’s attention students need to have a good resume and to help with that during the showcase were peer helpers Steven Kelly and Manreet Dhaliwal from Co-operative Education and Career Services at the U of G.
“We’ve had line ups at the table since we got here,” said Dhaliwal. “The most common problem with resumes is formatting and layout. If their resume is not properly laid out it can impact an employer’s impression.”
Having a good resume is essential even if you hope to work for yourself.
“My goal is to run my own startup but a less ambitious goal is to get a job with Google or Microsoft,” said Matt Blatz, a fourth year bachelor of computer science student at the U of G. “It is getting close to the end of my time at the University of Guelph. My co-op ends in September. I come back for eight months then into the workforce.”
Blatz is getting assistance with the transition from Laura Gatto a co-op coordinator for students in the School of Computing.
“We start working with them right out of high school and help them prepare for the work world,” said Gatto. “We are seeing former students returning to the tech show as reps for companies or with their own companies looking to hire employees. It goes full circle.”
