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College of Applied Science & Technology | Search CAST

Direct Student Contact

The two most prevalent ways to make contact with students outside of the normal recruiting process is through the student club or through giving talks in regularly scheduled classes. The School of Information Technology's student club can be contacted via its web site. Some suggested ways an employer could enhance its image through interaction with the club are:

  • Provide speakers for club meetings, but do not just talk about your company. Talk about what's it is like to work in the information technology industry, or, better yet, give a talk about a technical topic. You could team up with another speaker from your firm (or even another firm!) to give two views of the same topic.
  • Provide door prizes for club meetings, e.g. shirts, hats, etc. with your company logo (create a walking billboard).
  • Provide refreshments for club meetings even if you are not at the meeting- a great way to have a presence without being there.
  • Provide a speaker for a Saturday afternoon seminar on a technical topic (students don't do mornings).
  • Contributions to the club are always welcome. The ITK student club is very active in sponsoring members to attend the dinner meetings of the local ACM and AITP chapters (which provide a discount), sponsoring teams in ACM and AITP coding contests, and in many more activities most of which have some cost.

A second avenue for direct student contact is by being a guest lecturer in an ITK class. In this case, the lecture would be on a topic that has a direct bearing on the content of the course. Invitations to speak to a class are arranged by the individual professor teaching the class. Thus, you must first establish a rapport with faculty. This could be accomplished in various ways. You could visit with faculty while you are on campus recruiting, some firms hold "campus days" and invite faculty to visit their site, relationships are established through alumni who are employed in the firm, through consulting engagements, faculty summer internships, etc. The School of Information Technology also requires one course of all majors, Introduction to ITK Professional Practice that regularly invites employers to talk about interviewing strategies, "corporate life," and the information technology profession.