The fair featured around 160 nationwide employers speaking with MTU students and alumni in the Student Development Complex (SDC) about potential career/internship opportunities utilizing the skills and knowledge acquired through the university.

The fair technically began on Monday with a kickoff for the employers and workshops to assist students build resumes. The university held an informal gathering of the strategic corporate partners at the library and academic departments across campus held smaller mixers.

Students could have discussions with the employers in more relaxed settings as they began to plan who to talk with at the official fair. The morning of the fair also saw students and employers continuing the informal gatherings over breakfast.

At noon, the fair began in musical fashion with a procession into the SDC Gym by Blizzard T. Husky and the Michigan Tech Pep Band. Once the trumpets ceased to blare, formally dressed students and alumni flooded the SDC looking to converse with employers standing by hundreds of booths. The fair is something highly encouraged to students, with MTU data showing that starting salary averages for students who attend the fair beginning over $10,000 compared to students who do not attend.

Blizzrd T. Husky and the Michigan Tech Pep Band march through the multipurpose room to begin the Spring Career Fair at Michigan Technological University Tuesday. (Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette)

Director of Career Services Cody Kangas said demand for MTU talent is proven by the amount of employers who are willing to come to the area to recruit in 13 degree weather with 40 mph winds.

“I think by and large Huskies are sought all across the United States, and this is an opportunity for those employers to come get the talent,” Kangas said. “We [at] Michigan Tech as an institution and this entire community take the career mobility of our students seriously.”

Among the around 160 employers present were a few new entities, corporate partners of MTU and regular returnees. Alliance Laundry System attended its first fair with MTU looking for interested engineers as well as regularly returning MTU partner Leidos Corporation.

Leidos was looking for those with an interest in computer science, business or computer, electrical, systems, mechanical and civil engineering. Leidos hires 2,000 college students a year and is particular with its partnership with MTU.

Dale Rimmey was at the fair representing Leidos, and said that its 410 locations across the U.S. need the types of students MTU generates.

“One thing in particular is they’re (students and alumni) very well rounded,” Rimmey said. “A lot of the students here have a lot of the extracurricular activity work that we like to see. We like to say to students, ‘Hey, the things that you do on campus while you’re in school are the same kinds of things that you can do with us when you’re working in the professional world as well.'”

Leidos hires employees into a multitude of careers which encompass things such as the defense sector, unmanned vehicles and NASA.

Rimmey said however what the Leidos name is most likely recognized by the average citizen is the scanning equipment at the country’s airports. He said that MTU students normally leave a quality personal impression which assists in all of these areas.

“The students actually get better each year,” Rimmey said. “In fact, we just ran some statistics and metrics. We looked at how many students apply to our positions and how many students actually get interviews. Michigan Tech is one of the top five schools, from a percentage basis, of the people that that show interest in us and actually get interviews for those opportunities. So the students here are just really well spoken.”

It was not just nationwide companies present at the fair however, with the Houghton based Superior Technologies being present. Superior Technologies is a development firm and contract software developer entirely staffed by MTU graduates and also comprised of interns currently studying at the college.

Operations Manager Adam Griffis said that the company has interviewed students from multiple schools, but finds that MTU graduates are always what they need.

“We’ve interviewed students from other schools but we’ve just found that Tech students tend to be much more self motivated for problem solving, which in an industry that you have to be really oriented towards problem solving is super important,” Griffis said.

“We find that a lot of the people that we pick up are people that really came here for the community, and it’s just great that we can offer that opportunity for them to stay here.”

Another representative of Superior Technologies, Founding Partners Jacob Timmer, said that Superior Technologies is always encouraging a strong work-life balance and believes the Upper Peninsula is one of the few locations in which a highly technical job can coincide with a rural area. He said that the work is incredibly productive and as involved just like other areas.

“We’re building products of our own,” Timmer said. “So that’s just full stack development, every area from database design, understanding how clusters and servers all work to host things all the way up to the front ends and what things look like. So we look for people that are open to working on a variety of different things; people that enjoy kind of bouncing around from one thing to another. All of the work that the people that work for us do, even if they’re interns, is real work.”

It was not just companies present at the fair, with the military at some booths.

The US Navy was accounted for and looking for students interested in beginning their post-graduate life serving or joining a career under its services.

Some of the areas the Navy was offering were the nuclear power pipeline, aircraft carriers and submarines.

The Navy was also encouraging internships with Naval Sea Systems Command.

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Doug Adams was there on his second visit to the area and talked with several students and faculty. Adams said he was impressed with Tech students’ tenacity and teamwork related to the STEM areas.

“That critical thinking that they get here, particularly in the engineering curriculum, but in the other STEM fields as well, and with the Enterprise Program, where they kind of form teams and work on projects either for a year or sometimes for an entire four years, I think, is particularly impressive,” he said.

Adams believes the Navy can provide several positive outcomes for graduates in and out of uniform, and that if students were to choose to serve that it would be the best decision they could make.

“Keep your options open, understand what all the pros and cons are associated with the service, and what kind of the benefits potentially lead to a career,” Adams said. “It could be a career in the Navy, or even a short stint in the Navy to kind of kick start your career.”

While the large gathering of the fair ended on Tuesday, interviews will take place on Wednesday between students and the employers that they may have impressed.