Students queue before dawn for conference job fairs

Isabella Wong, a 20-year-old biochemistry student at Simmons University, attended the Society of Women Engineers conference in Boston for its career fair, panels and networking. She avoided the initial sprint to the booths but still found herself shoulder-to-shoulder with other job seekers. The crowds, she said, showed how determined students were to get a foot in the door.

Recent graduates face limited prospects: 42.5% are underemployed, according to the Federal Reserve. Jennifer Scott, SWE’s chief growth officer, estimated that about 14,000 people attended the conference, around 40% of them college students. She said companies have reduced early-career hiring and some recruiters no longer visit campuses. The Grace Hopper Celebration, another women-focused engineering conference, was canceled this year.

Students said internships can be easier to pursue than entry-level roles. Wong said most people she spoke with were seeking internships, while jobs requiring less experience appeared out of reach. Isabel Amaya, a 21-year-old informatics student at the University of Washington, already had a return offer and attended the SHPE conference mainly to network. Some friends, she said, had switched industries, turned to internships or delayed graduation to remain eligible for intern programs.

The fairs can still lead to offers. Amaya said she received her internship-turned-offer at the previous year’s SHPE conference, and that friends secured offers this year from companies including Bank of America and Bloomberg. Jocelyne Suerte, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering student at the University of Houston, said she received offers after attending both SHPE and SWE. She researched which companies were interviewing on-site and focused on their booths, despite struggling with poor Wi-Fi at SWE. Allan Morales, a University of Michigan sophomore, said many recruiters he met were looking for juniors.