Four or so years ago, Alison Bertagnoli was that student — the one of the hundreds roving through Kolf Sports Center, dressed to impress and ready to shake a hand, hand off a resume and, maybe, plant the seed off an internship… maybe a career.
On Sept. 23, Bertagnoli ‘10, was on the other end of the handshake.
A successful accounting analyst with Wisconsin-based, kitchen, bath, home interior and power-generation giant Kohler Co., she earned her first full-time position with the company immediately after graduating from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh with an accounting and finance degree.
“The older students out there needing internships — they come ready,” she said, while staffing Kohler Co.’s booth at the Sept. 23 Career Fair on the Fox, hosted by UW Oshkosh Career Services. “Their resumes are prepared, they’re asking good questions. … We have an extremely high rate of interns receiving offers at the end of the summer. It really is a dry run for a full-time position. We’re looking for good-quality work out of them as much as they are looking for a good experience out of the company.”
Just one of hundreds of UW Oshkosh success stories launched by and, in many cases, returning to the Career Fair on the Fox.
“Today, we had 155 companies and 23 nonprofits here because they want to hire our students as interns and full-time employees,” said Jaime Page-Stadler, director of UW Oshkosh Career Services, which sponsors the twice-annual Career Fair. “They are very, very impressed with what students bring to the table for a diverse groups of organizations.”
As the economy continues its rebound after a challenging last six years, an increasing number of companies are offering students’ mutually-beneficial, springboard internships, if not an entry-level positions. The Career Fair on the Fox has become a regional, staple event and partnership opportunity for the organizations, most rooted in Wisconsin.
“Most companies that are really concerned about succession planning are creating internship programs,” Page-Stadler said. “They are trying to convert those interns into fulltime hires. Right now the national average is almost 70 percent for intern-to-hire rate.”
From prosperous companies in UW Oshkosh’s relative backyard, such as Oshkosh Corporation, Menasha Corporation, and Plexus Inc., to Midwestern dynamos including Verona-based Epic Systems Corporation, Hormel Foods Corporation and a collage of insurance, law enforcement and social-services organizations, the Career Fair continues its role as a fall and spring matchmaker.
“We’re very happy with the recruits we’ve come across today,” said Jeanne Lorenz, talent acquisition manager for Menasha Corp. “They are very professional and present themselves very well. They look like people that we’d like to hire.”
Alliance Laundry Systems of Ripon, growing maker of commercial laundry equipment, also liked what they saw Sept. 23 in Kolf.
Travis Schumacher ’11, a Ripon native who graduated from UW Oshkosh with a supply-chain operations management degree, was front and center at the company’s booth, recruiting students for internships and entry-level positions.
“We have plenty of students who are interns that we plan on hiring full-time,” said Schumacher, who went from an analyst to manager with the company in three years. “… We’ve had plenty of UW Oshkosh students not only in supply-chain majors but different areas. The way that Alliance uses interns is we like to hire within. We like to train the up to that full-time position and keep them around, keep moving them up.”
That stepping-stone strategy is one several Career Fair participants said is helping the recruit, develop and retain talent.
“Within our business technology department — basically our IT department — over the past two years, we had nine interns,” said Mark Ziesemer, middleware architect and information security architect for School Specialty, Inc. of Greenville, maker of educational products.
“In the past year, we had six (interns), four from UW Oshkosh and two directly through the (UW Oshkosh) Business Success Center program. Those two graduated in August upon completing the internship with us. We’ve now hired them. … We have a lot of work to be done with, sometimes, too few people. It’s certainly financially advantageous to us, and it gives (students) real-world experience.”
Adam Halfmann of School Specialty said the company recently hired its first full-time, interactive-web emphasis graduate from UW Oshkosh. The new emphasis has proven incredibly valuable to the company, bringing new talent and insight to the organization, he said.
“I’m on the digital marketing team, we do social media marketing,” Halfmann said. “It’s really fun to have somebody with that mindset — to have new employees coming in thinking about that and trained that way. It’s great. They hit the ground running.”
The next Career Fair on the Fox is scheduled for March 2015.
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