More than 325 companies from across the United States, including regional industry leaders and nearly a dozen Fortune 500 companies, will have recruiters meeting with UW-Stout students at the semiannual four-day Career Conference Week.
Career Services will host five industry-focused career fairs aligned with UW-Stout’s career clusters from Monday, Feb. 27, to Thursday, March 2, in the Memorial Student Center.
Fortune 500 companies attending include International Paper, Boston Scientific, Hewlett Packard, Ecolab, Kimberly Clark, Xcel Energy, Parker Hannifin, PepsiCo, Marriott International, Cintas and Veritiv.
Companies with Wisconsin facilities representing the different industries include Fastenal, Heartland Business Systems, Skyward, Prent Corporation, Milwaukee Tool, EVCO Plastics, Greenheck Group, Johnson Controls, Findorff Construction, Market & Johnson and Great Northern Corporation.
Many companies attend multiple days of the conference to recruit students from across the career clusters. The week’s events are:
- Monday: Computing, Data, Software and Security
- Tuesday morning: Packaging, Print and Design
- Tuesday afternoon: Science and Engineering
- Wednesday: Construction
- Thursday: Management, Business, Hospitality and Human Sciences
More than 50 companies have requested day interviews, reported Career Services Director Bryan Barts. The impact can be seen in the more than 1,000 co-op and internship registrations annually, with 60% of those internships being completed in Wisconsin. The nearly 35% conversion rate from those experiences into full-time, post-graduation positions helps to strengthen the state’s workforce in numerous fields.
UW-Stout’s Career Conference Week is one of the largest in the Midwest, with more than 2,000 employers attending the past seven semiannual events, including virtual and hybrid events during the height of the pandemic.
New event highlights synergies in career fields
The Packaging, Print and Design event is new this semester. “With UW-Stout’s academic programs so focused on cross collaborations, there are many synergies in these fields,” Barts said.
“They often complement each other. With packaging, manufacturing, product design and marketing blended together, these programs work alongside each other. We put them together to help focus our career fair offerings.
“The print/design industry is very strong. It is our graduates’ blend of design plus their technical knowledge that helps support the industry’s needs in Wisconsin,” Barts said.
A value of innovation and new perspectives
Greenheck Group is a world leader in manufacturing air movement, conditioning, and control products for industrial, institutional and commercial use. Located in Schofield, Greenheck has 4,800 employees and offers a variety of co-op and internship opportunities, providing students with leadership, mentoring and tools for professional growth. It hires about 60 graduates each year.
Anna Brown, Greenheck’s college recruiter, is a 2018 UW-Stout business administration alum, with a human resources minor. She knows UW-Stout provides students with unique hands-on experiences.
“It’s common for students to have multiple projects with industry before graduation, which helps to develop a career-ready mindset,” Brown said. “We continue to leverage our relationship with UW-Stout because we know that the students can deliver the technical and soft skills we are looking for. That’s why we have a network of close to 100 UW-Stout alumni with Greenheck Group.
“Each year, we bring a few alumni back to the Career Conference to meet the next generation of talented workforce. We enjoy seeing the new perspectives and ideas that the students can bring to our company. We want to secure our unfair share of talented students and know that UW-Stout is the place to look,” she added.
Brown noted that one of Greenheck’s values is the importance of innovation and continuous improvement, and “I believe that is a value students learn at UW-Stout,” she said.
The success of the event is only possible through collaboration with all areas of campus, Barts said, acknowledging faculty and staff, Athletics coaches, student support offices, administration and academic leadership.
“As a spotlight event for Career Services, we also work to ensure that this event provides our employer partners and alumni the opportunity to return to campus, reconnect with programs and staff, meet through our program advisory committees and ultimately strengthen our office’s mission and the university’s,” Barts added.
Students have a required experiential learning component in all majors, such as a co-op or internship. UW-Stout’s Cooperative Education and Internship Program helps to coordinate these experiences and has served thousands of students the past several years.
CEIP is celebrating 40 years of providing students with hands-on polytechnic opportunities within their professional field and building partnerships between employers, students and university faculty and staff.
Handshake gives students access to more than 650,000 employers, including all Fortune 500 companies, as well as networking and education events and personalized job recommendations based on their major, interests and more.
Career Services’ Career Outcomes site provides First Destination and CEIP reports. Student success is the leading goal of UW-Stout’s FOCUS2030 strategic plan.
