When Capital One associates in Talent Acquisition and our
Technology and Business organizations go back to college campuses to recruit,
often they partner with school chapters of national organizations like Society
of Women Engineers (SWE), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE),
and National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). This year, in 2016, Capital One
Campus Recruiting is extending our partnership from the local level to the
national level to support our goal to hire diverse and representative classes
for our Campus Programs.
A major part of working with national organizations is
attending their national and regional conferences to engage directly with
members and attendees. My team is looking at the calendar now to decide where
will be going in the fall when many conferences happen, but we already checked
our first national conference off of our list in March: the NSBE National
Convention 2016 in Boston, Massachusetts.
This year the NSBE Convention had record attendance – over
11.5k – and half of the attendees were current college students. Eight
associates, including myself, represented Capital One at the Career Fair, a
Hackathon, and a Senior Executive Leadership Forum. Over the course of three
days, we chatted with hundreds of Engineering students and professionals from
all over the country.
Students who previously met us on their campuses before and
excitedly came by to say hello. On the opposite end of the spectrum, many
students were intrigued by our presence at an Engineering event. What role do
Engineers play at Capital One? Our answer: Engineers throughout the company
solve big problems, build intuitive products, and are changing how banking
works.
Many of the recent engineering graduates we hire start in
our Technology Development Program or our Product Management & Analytics
Program. Although we were approaching the end of our spring recruiting season
in March, we were excited to hire numerous students we met at NSBE into
full-time roles and internships.
The work of organizations like NSBE, SWE, and SHPE helps
promote diverse workforces and inclusive environments in Engineering and STEM
fields. After a fun, exciting, and successful event in Boston, I’m eager to
attend more conferences this fall.
