Big companies attend BYU’s annual STEM fair

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Student speaks with Adobe Representative
A student speaks with an Adobe representative about job opportunities at the STEM Fair. The STEM Fair is held annually at BYU. (Maddi Driggs)

BYU held their annual STEM fair on Sept. 24 for students looking to work for companies such as Facebook and Microsoft.

Each year, BYU hosts one of the biggest career fairs in the country. The STEM fair brings in the biggest company names like Microsoft, Facebook and Adobe. Hundreds of other companies attend the event to find current students and college graduates.

A large portion of the people who came were not attending BYU.

Brenton Krieger, a junior at BYU-Idaho majoring in Computer Science, came all the way down to attend the STEM fair.

“My professor told me, ‘It’s the biggest STEM fair on this side of the Mississippi,'” Krieger said. “It’s worth the drive down.”

The biggest reason Krieger came from BYU-Idaho to attend the event was for the job and internship opportunities available all in one location. This is the second year Krieger has attended the STEM fair. He was able to find an internship at Clearwater Analytics by coming to the STEM fair last year.

Most companies at the STEM fair looked for life sciences, information systems, engineering and mathematical sciences, physical sciences and school of technology students or graduates. Many of the companies offer internships and full-time job opportunities.

“There are lot of prospective internship and job opportunities here at the STEM fair,” said Kenny Nielsen, representative for Mozenda, Inc. “We are able to find a lot of great potential students and graduates here.”

Over a hundred companies were represented at the STEM fair. Big companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe, Vivint and DOMO were present at the fair looking for qualified students and graduates.

Many students waited a long time to be able to speak with their intended company due to the amount of people who attended the fair.

Jared Patten, a BYU senior majoring in computer engineering, said that the Facebook booth was popular.

“I waited nearly 45 minutes just to speak with Facebook,” Patten said.

Bigger companies like Facebook tend to attract more students than other companies because of the name brand and amount of pay offered.

“Facebook was offering $30 an hour just for their interns,” Patten said. “Imagine how much a full time employee would make.”

A student speaks with an Mindshare representative about possible job opportunities. Students print out and give their resumes to many different companies. (Maddi Driggs)

Besides money, students said they wanted experience in their fields so they can be prepared when they graduate.

Allen Black, junior at BYU majoring chemical engineering, attended the STEM fair. He said he went for an internship or job opportunity with DOW Chemical Company.

“The main reason I came was to see if I can find a great job,” Black said. “I hope I can get a job or internship with DOW.”

Many students, like Black, come prepared with a certain number of companies in mind that they wanted to visit. Information is published on BYU’s Bridge website about which companies will be attending and what majors they are looking for prior to each STEM fair.

Students can also prepare for the STEM fair by attending workshops and resume reviews. Black also mentioned that attending the workshops helped him get a better interaction with the companies.

“These companies see hundreds of students in the span of a few hours,” Black said. “Being able to go before at the workshops and talk to them more in-depth is very helpful.”

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