Chippewa Valley Times

About 2,000 students at UW-Stout will connect with recruiters from more than 360 companies from across the United States during the four-day Career Conference Week.

Leading employers in engineering, packaging, plastics, design, hospitality and more will be on campus from Monday, Sept. 23, to Thursday, Sept. 26, for five industry-focused fairs hosted by Career Services at the Memorial Student Center.

Menards offers internships in various areas of its operations. Chance Morse, Menards General Office operations manager stated: “We’re always looking for hardworking and dedicated people to join the Menards team and many of our talented and reliable team members and managers are Stout alumni. The conversations we have with Stout students at career fairs always leave quite an impression. We know that at the end of the day, we’ll have talked to some of our future interns.”

As one of the largest career conferences in the Midwest with over 2,500 employers attending past events, it contributes to a high employment rate among recent graduates who have a 99% employment rate within six months of graduation or are pursuing a graduate degree.

The Cooperative Education and Internship Program (CEIP) helps coordinate students’ required experiential learning components and builds partnerships between employers, students, and university faculty and staff.

Bryan Barts, Career Services Director said: “The fall event is the premier recruitment event to support our hiring and our co-op and intern program for next year. There is continued strong recruiting for fields related to energy, infrastructure and engineering as well as consumer products packaging and manufacturing.”

Fortune 500 companies attending include Boston Scientific, ConAgra, Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE), Hilton Hotels & Resorts (Hilton), Hormel Foods Corporation (Hormel), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Kimberly-Clark Corporation (Kimberly Clark), Kraft Heinz Company (Kraft Heinz), Land O'Lakes Inc., Marriott International Inc., Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (Northwestern Mutual), Parker Hannifin Corporation (Parker Hannifin), Polaris Inc., Rockwell Automation Inc., Sherwin-Williams Company (Sherwin-Williams), Sonoco Products Company (Sonoco) and Xcel Energy Inc.

Companies with Wisconsin facilities representing different industries include EVCO Plastics; Great Northern Corp; Green Bay Packaging; Harley-Davidson Motor Company; Heartland Business Systems; Kohler Co.; Landmark Resort; Market & Johnson; Marshfield Clinic Health System; Menards; Milwaukee Tool; Phillips-Medisize LLC.; Prent Corporation; Sand Valley Golf Resort LLC.; Skyward Inc.; Waupaca Foundry Inc.; Wilderness Resort.

Phillips-Medisize has locations in California, Arizona Idaho Massachusetts Arkansas in addition to west-central Wisconsin. Jen Parker early careers manager with Phillips-Medisize said: “We choose to attend the conference for the top-notch organization of the event. It is easy to find candidates because nearly all in attendance are in majors related to our industry... We are looking for interns ready to learn contribute.”

Several companies will be joining for the first time including Wells Blue Bunny ADDMAN Engineering AMS Industries ARCO Center for Urban Teaching Buesser Concrete JT Engineering North Pine Aggregate Printron Engravers Rheem Manufacturing Gant Aspen Tjader Highstrom United Packaging U.S Vets

Many companies attend multiple days recruiting across career clusters encouraging students attend any all days

The week’s events are:

- Monday: Computing Data Software Security

- Tuesday morning: Packaging Print Design

- Tuesday afternoon: Science Engineering

- Wednesday: Construction

- Thursday: Management Business Hospitality Human Sciences

Abby Vandenberg HBS college recruiter stated: “The Career Conference provides Heartland Business Systems a great opportunity connect engage students... HBS has hired several IT interns from Stout many still working post-graduation”

Career Conference Week kicks off fall recruitment season including Blue Devil Prep Success MN Government Nonprofit Career Fair UMN Built Environment Career Fair Wisconsin Biohealth Summit Internship Draft Day Graduate Degree Fair CEIP received annual Excellence Innovation Stewards Place award American Association State Colleges Universities "for its outstanding results potential influence serve model other institutions."

“UW-Stout’s commitment future career success easily seen through core polytechnic tenets applied learning career focus collaboration industry” Barts said More than 1 100 enroll each year completing hands-on co-ops internships over 500 companies nationally since inception CEIP benefited over 27k since inception '82

Career Outcomes site provides First Destination CEIP reports Student success leading goal FOCUS2030 strategic plan Spring '24 held Mon Feb '24 Thu Feb '27