Corporate Connections
Career Conference 2008 Offers Diverse Opportunities
CBA’s Career and Leadership Development Center recently hosted Career Conference 2008 at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association in Oakland. This year’s program offered an exciting new take on the Internship Café event previously held by CBA. New features of the Career Conference included a more flexible and dynamic format, a wider range of sessions, and more companies in attendance than ever before. The event also attracted record student attendance, with nearly 240 freshmen, sophomores, and juniors participating.
The Career Conference is designed to help CBA underclassmen develop professionally, connect with companies, and learn about internship and full-time job opportunities. “The program takes an educational approach,” says J.P. Matychak, assistant director of the Career and Leadership Development Center. “For example, a freshman who attends the conference will be able to learn about the opportunities available at different companies, the requirements for these positions, and how to work toward preparing for the most competitive internship opportunities in the future.”
The program was run in the style of a professional conference, with a number of sessions running simultaneously. The advantage for students was having the flexibility to pick and choose the sessions they wanted to attend, without needing to commit to the full time frame if they had other engagements. Concurrent sessions included both industry panel discussions and professional development workshops featuring representatives from the firms in attendance.
Through the industry panels, students were able to learn about different fields such as accounting, finance, management, and marketing and sales and to interact with the companies within these industries. Students also learned about the industry-specific qualities most sought after in prospective interns and permanent hires.
The professional development workshops were facilitated by corporate representatives as well and included sessions on “The Three Stages of an Interview,” “How Not to Get Hired,” “The Ethical Compass—Ethics and Integrity in Business,” “Becoming a Leader at Twenty Something,” “More than Eating with the Right Fork” (business etiquette), “Career Enhancement through Networking,” “First Impressions,” and “Transitioning from School to Work.”
Other program highlights included a networking luncheon and an information fair that provided students time to speak one-on-one with corporate representatives about specific opportunities at their firms.
2008 Career Conference corporate participants included:
- A.G. Edwards, a Division of Wachovia Securities, LLC
- ALDI, Inc.
- American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.
- Defense Contract Audit Agency
- Deloitte
- Dick’s Sporting Goods
- Eli Lilly and Company
- Ernst & Young
- FedEx Corporation
- Giant Eagle Inc.
- Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, University of Pittsburgh
- Kforce Inc.
- KPMG International
- Liberty Mutual Group
- Macy’s, Inc.
- MassMutual Financial Group
- MEDRAD, Inc.
- National City Corporation
- Nestlé Retail Operating Company
- Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
- Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, U.S. Department of the Treasury
- Parente Randolph, LLC
- Philip Morris USA
- Athletic Department, University of Pittsburgh
- PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Protiviti Inc.
- Prudential Financial, Inc.
- Schneider Downs & Co., Inc.
- Target
- Tailored Marketing, Inc.
- The Pitt News
- Internal Audit Department, University of Pittsburgh
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
- United States Steel Corporation
- Waddell & Reed, Inc.
- Wolseley’s North American Division