Student Spotlight
Name: Graham Mobley
Major: Computer Science
Graduation Term: Spring 2022
Graham attended the Engineering Career Fair this semester on February 8th!
How was your experience attending the career fair?
For Graham, the career fair was a little stressful at first. However, as time went on Graham was able to become more comfortable and enjoyed speaking with several employers.
“In the end, I was extremely pleased having set up a few interviews with some of those employers after talking with them at the career fair.”
How did you prepare to speak with employers?
Graham says there were a few big steps he took when preparing to talk with employers. First, Graham conducted research on employers to get a better understanding of what each employer does and what jobs had interested Graham.
“This would enable me to better answer questions from the employers such as “why do you want to work for our company?” and it would also demonstrate some initiative on my part that the employers may take notice of.”
After doing research on different employers, Graham came up with questions he planned on asking employers at the Career Fair as well as planned and went over in his head how conversations may go to ensure that he was fully prepared for any questions and topics.
What advice would you have for fellow students regarding career fairs, job/internship hunting, etc.?
“Some advice that I think would be very helpful for anyone is if you are able to then make your best effort to go to the career fair and no matter what try to talk to all the employers that you are interested in talking to.”
Graham almost didn’t have time to speak with one company he was most interested in. After finding time to speak with John Deere right before time was up, John Deere reached out to Graham after the career fair was over. John Deere invited Graham to apply for multiple positions, and after a couple of rounds of interviews, Graham received a great offer for a job after he graduates!
“So, although in most cases people will apply for jobs online, they may not realize that simply going to talk with employers at the career fair could be a great way of getting your foot in the door for some amazing opportunities.”
What do your next steps regarding work and career plans look like?
Graham will be starting out as a Software Test Infrastructure Engineer in Waterloo, Iowa at John Deere.
“As for my career plans, I intend on trying my hardest to get as much experience as I can and to hopefully work my way up while at John Deere so I can keep advancing in terms of my career. And in my free time, I intend on completing personal projects so that I can stay well-rounded when it comes to Software Development.”