Crimson and Gold Connection; Mary Wehrman

I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro and I want to thank you for joining me this week for the Crimson and Gold Connection here on 89.9 KRPS. This week I'm joined by Mary Wehrmann. She's an instructional support consultant at the College of Technology here at Pittsburgh State University. Thank you for joining me this week, Mary. Great to be here. Thank you. Next Tuesday and Wednesday, September 19th and 20th is the College of Technologies Company Days. What is Company Days at Pittsburgh State University all about? Well Company Day is an opportunity for companies to come in and show what their company is all about. They get to kind of showcase themselves, talk, you know, show what their niche market is, that kind of thing. Some of the companies that come in will do what they call InfoSessions. And they'll come in the evening before they'll do an InfoSession so that students can learn about them and then have the Company Day event where they will, you know, talk to students,

gather names. Some of them will stay around for another day or two and then they'll interview their students. Sometimes they're interviewing for internships. Sometimes they're interviewing for actual job placements after they graduate. From the student perspective, the purpose of Company Days is for our students, well, it's a great opportunity for them to learn how to network. Most of them aren't too savvy with how to introduce themselves, make eye contact and then start asking questions and be able to really pull some information from those companies about what it is that they do and how they might fit in. What skills are they going to need when they graduate if they're going to fit in there? So it gives them that information. This is an event that actually was started in 1998 by the School of Construction. They have done it annually since then. Along about, I think it was 2010 or 2011, then the rest of the college joined in, added on to it.

So now it's a pretty big event. In fact, it used to be we tried to do it all on one day and it just got overwhelming. So this will be our third year with a two-day format. So we have some of the companies on construction and graphics and wood are all on Tuesday and then automotive and engineering are on Wednesday. I think we have 130 companies coming in on Tuesday and 82 companies coming in on Wednesday. But this is like a one-stop shop it sounds like to get students on board from their education here at Pitt State to getting a job working in the real world. That's right. That's exactly what it is. Because we have students who will come in and they'll, I mean, usually it's part of almost all of the instructors will encourage them to get a resume done and it is, you know, you suit up and you bring your resume and then you go around and you talk to all these different companies. It's a great time for them to be able to start figuring out, you know, what the niche is for those companies. It's just, it's great practice for them to be able to, you know, talk to people. A lot of them aren't really used to doing that.

So it's just a good chance to do that. Yeah, a lot of people used to their phones kind of sticking in their selves these days. And here they can go through the process here, right here at Pitt State without going anywhere. Right. No admission either. That's right. We don't charge. No charge. So it's not like a job fair where you pay $20 or $10 at the door to get in and talk to people. Oh, yeah. The students definitely don't pay anything. No. No charge. There's no cost to park. No. No parking costs. No cost to get in. No. So really, there's no reason why an interested student shouldn't attend this. You know, actually, the students can even take the bus from main campus, they can hop on the bus and go on out and if they have their resume ready and they're dressed appropriately and they want to come, we welcome them. We try to put flyers up on main campus so that all students are aware that it's happening because it's, there are many companies. There are companies that, you know, a construction company, maybe they're also looking for a graphics person who helps them with their marketing plan and all the graphics that go into that. There might be companies that want someone who has accounting, you know, they're construction

company, but they're also looking for accountants. So people that have, you know, business background, that kind of thing, there's a lot across over. And some of the companies that are coming in, like Keywet, for example, comes in one day on construction because they're looking for construction management students or safety students and then they'll come again on Wednesday because they're looking for automotive diesel, mechanics and fleet managers for their diesel fleet. So, you know, they'll come in both days and some of it has to do if they have the time and the people available to come both days, that kind of thing. I like what you said about niche because in the job market, that's what it's all about. I mean, our niche here, you know, in public radio, you have to do, you have to wear multiple hats, you know, and in your job, that's how it is too. And I feel that I remember when I was going to college, I was always focused on one things, but really when you're on the job market, whatever gets your foot into the door, whatever makes you look better, that's what you have to do. And especially in this competitive job market. I was going to mention that, I mean, we have one company that's coming in and they are looking for, it's Z and T. He's actually, the person who owns it is a personal friend

of Matt Brown, who's in structure. He has developed this mobile alternate reality wagon kind of thing. And he is looking for graphic students who can help him make 360 images and virtual reality. He has virtual reality, yeah. And so, he's wanting to be able to change his virtual reality. It's sort of like a Disney ride, but it's mobile, so he can take it to different locations like state affairs and that sort of thing. He developed one for Bob's lead ride and he didn't want to have to be dependent on, was there enough snow and is there enough, you know, if it's extreme cold temperatures and that kind of thing. What he's looking for is someone that can help him develop more so that you can have roller coaster rides and all that kind of stuff. So he's looking for graphic students. So companies and even their own are show up here looking for very specific people sometimes. Yes. And there are some, you know, they're looking for interns. They want to have someone do maybe an extended internship. So there's a lot of this stuff that goes on, you know, it's not just like a cookie cutter kind of thing.

There's just a lot of nuances and until you've been through it, you don't really know what all's happening. Besides yourself, who are some of the organizers? We have a committee, Jim Otter and Rebecca Book are faculty members that are the chairs of the committee right now. But we have representatives, faculty representatives from each of the departments. There really are associate deans that's in on the meetings as well. So and then some of the administrative support people are part of the committee. There are about 10 of us. So I managed registrations and kind of field questions of any of the special requests that come in. Well, I just want to mention EB construction is one of the companies that started, when we started in 1998, they were one of the companies that came in. There's several cross-lin constructions, another one that has almost always been there. But EB construction has not missed an event since 1998. I think that's pretty impressive. And so of course, once again, they'll be here most of the time, they sponsor when they come, which is great. We really appreciate those companies, you know, when you stop and think about the companies that were willing to come, even when we were having an economic downturn, 2008, 2009,

those lean years, they were still willing to come in. So we really appreciate them. I guess this week on the Crimson and Gold connection was Mary Wehrman with PSU's College of Technology. For more information about Career Days 2017, you can visit the College of Technology's website at pitstate.edu slash technology. For 89.9 KRPS, I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro. Join us for Crimson and Gold Connection Wednesdays at 8.50 and Fridays at 350.