Christina Naylor scanned her notes seeking a Luddy Fall 2024 Career Fair advantage from a Monroe Convention Center hallway.
The computer science senior planned to make a difference in the world, as so many Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering students do. She targeted a job in green tech and environmental tech, hoping to use software engineering to help make tomorrow healthier than today.
The career fair was a way to help turn that goal into reality, and if it brought nervousness and uncertainty with it, that would pass. Change is never easy.
“I want to make a positive difference,” Naylor said. “I don’t know where that will be. A lot of these companies sound interesting and are making a difference in the world.”
Inspired by an older sister who is a software engineer, Naylor said she’s been interested in programming since middle school. She was one of nearly 1,400 students who attended the Sept. 19 event, which drew 60 employers from all over the Midwest. She wants a summer of 2025 internship. Xylem, a global water technology provider that provides water solutions in 150 countries, topped her list, but she was open to anything.
“I’m looking for opportunities.”
Opportunities were everywhere from participating companies highlighted by gold-sponsor employers Eli Lilly and Company, TRIMEDX, AbbVie, Belden Inc., as well as ServiceNow, EY, Deloitte, Humana and Atrium.
Many students wound up with next-day interviews for potential internships and full-time positions, with follow-ups hosted in the Luddy Career Services offices. Most career fair companies will conduct interviews in the coming weeks, and Career Services will assist by providing a professional interview space and high-speed Wi-Fi.
“We want to help introduce students to opportunities, companies and industries they might not previously have known about,” said Macy Harmon, senior associate director of employer relations.
“Whether or not they’re here to apply for an opportunity, or to practice those critical networking and interpersonal skills, we want them to feel comfortable in this setting talking to a professional who is unknown to them.
“The fair is a chance for them to showcase their skills and themselves, and get a better and deeper understanding of what companies are offering.”
Career fair employers encompassed a wide range of industries.
“Some are steadfast partners, some are new,” Harmon said. “We’re proud of the breadth of companies participating.”
Companies hire Luddy graduates, Harmon added, because they need students who have a deep technical understanding as well as an awareness of the working world.
“Luddy students bring that incredible academic rigor they’re getting in the classroom, but as we know, now every company is a tech company regardless of industry,” she said. “They have tech professionals under their roofs. Luddy students bring an awareness of how to improve business practices and processes through technology.”
A central message from company recruiters came from Megan Morgan, a Luddy School Informatics graduate from 2019 who does tech consulting and Oracle implementations at Deloitte, one of the world’s largest international accounting and professional service firms.
“Besides the technical expertise,” Morgan said, “we’re looking for students who can speak to people, who have the soft skills we need.”
Morgan said Luddy graduates are great fits for Deloitte because, “Luddy students have the technical acumen to do tech consulting.”
Morgan’s advice for students attending career fairs, now and in the future -- don’t be nervous, be yourself.
“We were once in their position. We want to have candid conversations, good conversations. Not cookie-cutter career conversations.”
Tristan Loera, an IT manager at Eli Lilly, said her company seeks students with strong technical expertise through proven work-place assignments or projects; it wants people who have “applied those skills into creating something.”
She said Lilly wants versatile employees who understand technology and who can effectively explain it to business team members and general audiences unfamiliar with technology.
“Lastly, we’re looking for motivational fits, people who are interested in working in the healthcare industry for a pharmaceutical company who have an interest in putting the patient first and are aligned to our company morals,” Loera said.
Students with any Luddy degree are good fits, she added.
“If they are computer science majors and have that business acumen, that’s great. If they are informatics majors and still have that strong technical acumen, great.
“We’re looking for well-rounded student. We’re not focused on majors, we’re focused on skills.”
Jiovan Herrera, a junior Informatics major with a cognate in security, attended the career fair for the first time and used it as a learning experience. Focused on getting an internship, ideally with a cyber security firm, he said he was impressed by the number of career fair companies and opportunities.
Rohan Punyarthi, a Data Science master’s student from India, used the career fair to try to find a job in health care and with pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly. He said his experience is closely aligned to the clinical side. He received an internship through last year’s fair.
“I’m thankful for this event,” he said. “We get a chance to connect with industry leaders early in the semester. We get a good start. I’m very hopeful.”
Shubham Salunke, a Computer Science master’s student, attended the fair for the first time. He said he was searching for an internship that would utilize his focus on software engineering and systems. With five years of real-world experience in software engineering, he brought an intriguing skill set to the interview process.
“I want to expand and use my skills to provide impact for software solutions,” he said.
Nina Koutz, a sophomore in Informatics, targeted an internship in user interface/user experience. She said she had been to two previous career fairs, but wasn’t as prepared as she is now.
“I hope to network with people, see how things work and find a good opportunity.”
Doug Surfleet runs the application development team at Atrium, a consulting company focused on helping customers improve their business processes through a data-driven approach using AI and analytics. He said Luddy and Informatics students are a “great consulting resource.”
“We get a mix of the technical skills and the functional business skills from them. We find students who can talk to customers and who understand the technical side. That way, we don’t have to train them on that. It’s a great mix of both.”
Surfleet added that the company comes to Luddy’s career fair every year, “because the students are really good. We know we can fill our needs here with so many high-quality students.”
Brian Chapman, a product director in product management for Trimedix, a biotechnical company based in Indianapolis, said IU in general and the Luddy School in particular were prime recruiting targets because of proximity and the quality of the students.
Trimedix offers 10-week summer internships that often lead to full-time positions. Company hiring needs include software developers, product owners and product managers and analysts. The company is heavily involved in AI, machine learning and general software development.
“It’s a good hit for us to come down here and speak with students,” Chapman said. “You get to talk to students about their career growth and where they’re going to go.”
In the end, for students and recruiters, it came down to the right fit. Deloitte’s Morgan said her Luddy education was a game changer.
“It’s cool to see how my job relates back to my Luddy degree. Now I’m implementing Cloud financial solutions. I can see how the curriculum ties into what I do.”