Dearth of Recruiters at First National ASCE Student Meeting
Like an unsteady concrete canoe, the job market for new civil engineering graduates seemed shaky last week to attendees at the first-ever national student conference of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The June 21-24 event in Madison, Wis., drew 1,200 students from 112 schools, but recruiters from just 33 organizationsone-third of what organizers had expected.
"We were hoping for 100 firms," said Jeffrey S. Russell, chairman of the construction engineering and management program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which hosted the event. "I kept hearing, 'we cut our budget and we're not hiring.'" While the National Association of Colleges and Employers ranked civil engineering as one of the top 10 majors with job offers for new graduates, employment-related activity was slow at the meeting's career fair. The conference also kept attendees busy by combining, for the first time, technical sessions and competitions in concrete canoe construction, steel bridge design and environmental treatment technology. ASCE contributed $250,000 toward the conference to celebrate its 150th anniversary, among other industry donors.