Allegheny College in Meadville, PA chose to host an event I have been running at the Pittsburgh Technology Council for several years called Education Meets Industry. Essentially the school agrees to host an event where a panel of industry professionals come to speak to their students about careers. After a moderated panel discussion about career choices, career advices, we have a time of networking with the students and the company representatives. The networking piece is where the real magic happens. Students often find themselves making connections for internships or full time work after they graduate. We cannot put a price tag on how valuable these types of events really are.

On this particular night we had representatives from Vivsimo, Management Science Associates, Bayer, and Reed Smith. Company representatives spoke to questions that covered issues like:

Resume writing
Cover letters
How to get an internship
The real story about finding a job online
The hiring process at their company
The IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS (I cannot tell you how many times they emphasized this skill)
The power of personal networking when looking for a job
Relocation
Salaries
Etc…

As you can see we covered a wide variety of topics during the Q&A and even more during the networking session.

I took a few photos during the panel discussion from my perch at the moderator’s podium. What else was I going to do while they answered questions?

Thanks to Jim Fitch for all of his hard work in pulling this together.