(130a) Teaching How to Fish: Mentoring Students in Job/Internship Networking

The job and internship market for chemical engineers is constantly changing with the economy and due to forces much beyond the control of Junior and Senior Chemical Engineering students. Here we report our efforts over the past decade seeking to teach an effective way to mentor students in effective targeted networking strategies and throughout the job search. We found that creating multiple seminar classes assisting students through the process was the most effective approach. This has resulted in increased student placement rates, with close to 100% placement within a few months of graduation in most cases.