With 10 corporate sponsors and about 100 volunteers, there’s no getting around that this year’s Disciplines of Engineering Career Fair (DECaF) was a hit. The February event raised $36,000 through corporate sponsorships and registration fees, all of which will benefit the student organizations that make up the Triton Engineering Student Council.

About 1,500 students from all disciplines of engineering attended the fair, lining up at company booths, turning in resumes and talking with recruiters. The number of companies represented jumped from 20 last year to 50 this year.

DECaF Chairman Jeffrey Mounzer,’ 08, says the rise of the Jacobs School of Engineering in national rankings is
attracting more recruiters.

“Companies are always looking to get more involved with students,” Mounzer says. “At DECaF, they get a chance to meet students, and students get to meet representatives. From every point of view, it’s a great event.”

Companies present at the fair included ViaSat, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Invitrogen and Raytheon. Many of the recruiters already plan on returning for next year’s DECaF. Invitrogen recruiter Stanford Tuupo says he was able to collect a great pool of candidates for his company.
“Our hardest decision will be narrowing these down to the list we want to call back for interviews,” Tuupo says. “There is no question we will be back again next year with at least one more recruiter.”

Cliff Notes written by Marnette Federis, ’06