On Tuesday, January 26, 2010, engineering students from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences student body converged under on eroof to dine with company representatives in the 33rd annual Evening With Industry (EWI). Hosted by SWE-UCLA, this sold-out event consisted of an elegant three-course meal where students were able to enjoy dinner with company representatives from all across the engineering industry. Following dinner, the students were able to attend a career fair exclusive to EWI attendees to scope out the many other companies that were present that night.
Evening With Industry took place once again in the Covel Commons’ Grand Horizon Ballroom, and its success was the outcome of many months of planning. Prior to the date, the EWI Co-chairs, Linda Wong and Sophia Lin, worked to enhance company and student participation and meticulously planned out the event to ensure a great experience for both students and companies. While initially, there was concern that the economic downturn would negatively affect company attendance at EWI, it was not the case as thirty three companies decided to partner with SWE-UCLA that night. In addition to attending EWI, the Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Abbott Vascular, Blizzard Entertainment, T-Mobile, and Xerox even went on to generously sponsor SWE-UCLA. Many companies also went out of their way to donate raffle prizes ranging from company-sponsored grab bags, backpacks and gift cards to IPods, netbook computers, and a DirecTV system.
Active student recruitment for this event also took place in the form of flyers, emails, Facebook invites, and word of mouth during the weeks leading up to the event as all the SWE officers and committee members worked to publicize this event to the UCLA engineering student body. The dedication and commitment paid off as the event sold out at 252 students with some students needing to sign up on the waitlist. The student participants of this event came from not only all departments of the engineering school but also those outside HSSEAS, including physics and computational studies. The students included undergraduate students, graduate students, as well as recent UCLA graduate. EWI was a great opportunity for students looking for internships and full time jobs as many of the companies who came were hiring. The companies were also presented with a resume CD that contained the resumes of the EWI student attendees.
These enthusiastic students not only had the opportunity to interface with industry representatives in both an intimate setting, but they were also able to listen to the keynote speaker, Vinita Gupta, President and founder of the company Quick Eagle Networks, talk about entrepreneurship. More specifically, Gupta spoke about her journey from being a student immigrant from India to the CEO of Quick Eagle Corporation and what she learned about herself and others through her journey.
Evening With Industry proved once again to be a highly successful and well-received event by both students and companies. For many students it was their first time going to a recruiting event of this nature and this helped ease them into a professional setting. Feedback was very positive and EWI 2010 resulted in an increase of membership and publicity for SWE-UCLA.
EWI Co-Chair
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