North Carolina A&T hosted its annual Career Awareness Fair

last week.   

Its purpose was to give the students a face-to-face opportunity

to meet with professionals.

North Carolina A&T hosted its annual Career Awareness Fair last week.   

Its purpose was to give the students a face-to-face opportunity to meet with professionals.

With the theme, “Designing Your Own Tomorrow”, over 96 companies set up in Corbett Sports Center to speak to students about internship and job opportunities and even accept their resumes.

“It’s been going better than previous years,” said junior computer engineering major, Shelby Kilgore. “It seems more organized and less crowded for this time of day.”

As students walked in, they had to check in with the Office of Career Services in which they were given a name tag with their particular major on them. Students were also given a bag with a book of the list of companies present and an A&T note pad and pen.

“It was a great incentive to get motivated as we walked into the career fair,” continued Kilgore.

Professors prep students for career fairs each year; this year was no different. Students came dressed appropriately to make great first impressions.

“I’ve done other career fairs and the turn out is nowhere near the capacity of A&T students,” said Amber Shuler of Fox 8.

Although all majors are welcomed at the career fair, most companies were geared toward engineers and business majors.

“I find it intimidating because I am a sports science major and there are more qualified here,” said sophomore Rashad Perry.

 Still, there may be something for everyone. Companies were open to just talking with students and handing out their business cards. 

John Deer Inc. was one of the companies that participated in this event. John Deer has been a participant in the career fair since 2001, and they continuously have NC A&T students and alumni in intern and full-time positions. Last year, John Deer hired 12 students in intern positions and 4 in full-time positions. Their goal for 2012 is to double the amount of NC A&T students that they hire. John Deer comes to NC A&T to find the best talent. NC A&T alumni know the potential within the students here, and want John Deer to recognize this talent as well.

“The talent level at A&T is great. There is a lot of drive within the students of Aggie Nation,” said Brandon Banks, Testing Engineer and Product Verification at John Deer. Banks graduated from A&T in 2009 and has been working with John Deer for over four years.

John Deer also held an interest meeting in Webb Hall the night of the career fair at 6:30. At this meeting, 24 employees from John Deer spoke about becoming the John Deer team. The session began with a short informational video, then the floor was opened for questions, and it was ended by a demonstration showing students how to create a profile on John Deer’s website.

Overall, students were excited about the potential to work for John Deer.

“There are plenty of opportunities there,” said Brandon Loftin, a senior Applied Engineering and Manufacturing Systems student. Loftin has been a John Deer Scholar, and will be applying for an internship for the summer of 2012. He enjoys the company environment, benefits, and career longevity offered at John Deer.

There will be a John Deer Day in March. They plan to continuously come back to the career fair in the future, and bring in more talent from the Aggie Nation, and the students plan to be a part of this company.

“I look forward to being a part of the John Deer Company,” said Travis Dawson, a senior Manufacture ring student who will be working for John Deer full-time after he graduates.

The Office of Career Services is always open and offers help to students all year. They also post internship and job openings for each major on their website www.careerserv.ncat.edu/.

– Email [email protected] & [email protected] and follow us on Twitter @ATRegister

• Victorri Taylor & Bobbi Pompey, Contributors