Victoria Faraci is an English graduate student at The University of Waterloo, currently on a Co-op term as a Communications and Marketing Assistant at the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre.
Last week I was invited to attend my first ever recruitment event:
Re:Engineering Leadership, which took place at uWaterloo on Tuesday, October 1 from 5:00 – 8:30 p.m. in E5. This was a graduate studies fair where hopeful Engineering students thinking of graduate studies were able to ask questions and get more information.
What made this event really cool, though, was the fact that there were four other schools in attendance, all named Canada’s top engineering destinations: University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, McGill University, and University of Toronto.
At first I was curious to see how the schools were all going to interact with one another: will this be a competitive environment? Should we be nice? Should I be nice? All of my hypothetical questions were quickly answered when Amanda Watkins, Conrad's Marketing and Recruitment Manager, casually began talking to representatives from U of T Engineering. At that point, I knew the environment was safe, and that we could all be friends (phew).
Setting up the Waterloo Engineering booth.
I was quickly filled in on the event and realized that this recruiting initiative was really huge! This was Waterloo’s turn to host the event, but each school would have the chance to welcome 4 academic rivals to their home turf for a similar graduate studies consortium this month.
I began to help setup the Waterloo Engineering table. Free pens and swag abound, I tried to arrange the colours best I could so that the light was hitting the Conrad logo at just the right spot…but the challenges didn’t stop there, I’m afraid.
After Amanda and I admirably assembled our Conrad banner, we had some time to catch our breath, but then it started. Soon, the doors opened and students started flooding in. I use the word flooding, because I mean the word flooding. These students weren’t like other ones I’ve observed. These ones meant business. They were on a mission. Coming straight for me, I put on my best Conrad smile, and awaited the barrage of questions.
Good thing I spent some time during the day reading about Conrad and what we have to offer prospective graduate students in our Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) program (quite a lot, I gotta say). Students enthusiastically hopped from booth-to-booth, adding to their pen collections, but also to their excitement. As the students asked very relevant questions, I found myself wishing that there was an event like this when I was applying for grad school.
I thought the event was awesome, but since it was only my first recruitment fair, I can't say that I am much of an expert. I decided to go right to the source and ask the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies in Engineering, Bruce Hellinga, what he thought:
We were pleased with the number of engineering students who attended the Waterloo event. Our partnership (with UBC, University of Alberta, McGill, and University of Toronto) is an important step in raising the profile of engineering graduate studies in Canada and we are looking forward to engaging with engineering students at the other universities." Bruce Hellinga
Uwaterloo President, Feridun Hamdullahpur, was also in attendance. He briefly spoke to the audience, encouraging them to pursue their education at the graduate level.
All-in-all, every student I met at our booth seemed to be very interested in Waterloo Engineering. Students who didn’t know much about the MBET program left with a ton of new knowledge, literature…and pens.
If you missed all the fun, don’t feel bad. This recruiting party is not over yet. We are hitting the open road to wrap up this event!
Contact us if you would like to meet up! That means you, alumni and prospective students, or anyone else who enjoys a good engineering party. Please contact Amanda Watkins to arrange a time to meet-up at any of the cities and dates listed below. You can also check out our newsletter for more details.
October 8 – Edmonton – Engineering Consortium
October 9 – Calgary – uWaterloo Engineering alumni event
October 10 – Vancouver – Engineering Consortium
November 7 – Vancouver – The MBA Tour
November 9 – Toronto – The MBA Tour
November 12 – Ottawa – The MBA Tour