DMSE Career Fair spurs students to explore job opportunities
Recruiters from multiple industries—from aerospace and electronics to pharmaceuticals and consulting—set up booths at the DMSE Career Fair on October 10, offering students in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering opportunities to meet with employers seeking materials expertise.
Held on the eighth floor of the sleek, modern Schwarzman College of Computing, the venue was a hit with attendees and recruiters alike, offering stunning views of Cambridge and Boston’s skyline.
“There was a constant flow of students coming in, and recruiters were engaged throughout the day,” said Rebecca Shepardson, undergraduate administrator at DMSE.
About 200 students and postdocs attended the fair, with lines forming to speak with representatives from 15 companies, organizations, and labs about jobs and internships.
Ana Paula Nascimento, DMSE’s event planner, said the fair’s narrow focus on materials science and engineering skills is what brought students in. Legacy giants such as Saint-Gobain and Thermo Fisher Scientific as well as startups like Boston Metal, a DMSE spinout, were recruiting for materials engineers, researchers, and application lab technicians.
“This materials focus—students really like it,” Nascimento said, especially compared with MIT’s annual Fall Career Fair, with hundreds of recruiters and thousands of attendees. “Some students I talked to think it’s too big—they use the word ‘intimidating.’ This fair is small; it’s focused. You don’t feel intimidated.”
For DMSE graduate student Thea Yan, the event’s emphasis on materials science was a key draw.
“I think a lot of companies here are relevant to what we do,” Yan said. “And just talking to the recruiters is very helpful in identifying the specific jobs we can pursue in the future.”
This was the second year the department hosted the fair, and the venue change—from the ornate, mural-lined walls of Walker Memorial’s Morss Hall in 2023 to one of MIT’s newest constructions—wowed attendees.
“The view is really nice,” said Carl Thrasher, a graduate student in DMSE. “I think that helps give the event an air of, ‘Oh, you’re recruiting at a high level.’ Students appreciate feeling valued like that.”
Organizers were equally pleased with the venue. Shepardson was relieved that the Vassar Street location, a short walk from MIT’s central campus, didn’t have a negative impact on turnout. “I was actually worried that this was a bit out of students’ way, but I don’t think that made a difference,” she said.
Students who made the trip were impressed with the diversity of organizations on hand. Next to names like manufacturer Corning and R&D company Bosch Research were private aerospace company SpaceX, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering, and SandboxAQ, a tech startup experimenting with AI and quantum computing.
“I’m interested in material synthesis in general—and also probably technical consulting,” said Yan, who works on solid-state batteries in Professor Yet-Ming Chiang’s laboratory. She had just talked to a representative from Exponent, an engineering and scientific consulting company.
The fair also served as an avenue for outreach. Thrasher, who is part of MIT’s Program in Polymers and Soft Matter, discovered Solvus Global, a tech company that specializes in powder metallurgy and recycling.
“I have a strong background in nanoparticles and powders, so that’s an interesting opportunity that I hadn’t considered before,” Thrasher said.
Nascimento recalled feedback by a representative of law firm Foley & Lardner LLP, who spoke to students about opportunities in patent law, a field many had not previously thought about.
“She introduced them to a new career path for engineering students,” Nascimento said.
On the other side of the booths, Katherine Stone, a DMSE alum and senior applications scientist at NETZSCH Instruments North America, said her company participated in the fair because of the broad applicability of DMSE students’ skills.
“It’s really useful for people to have hands-on experience,” Stone said. “Just having general laboratory experience in materials that’s science-based—it makes it a lot easier to slide into anything.”
Stone was recruiting for sales jobs that require technical engineering knowledge and an application laboratory role. She collected about 20 resumes for consideration for these and other opportunities.
“I know some things coming down the pipe,” she said, “So I’d tell students, ‘Give me a resume, because we might be interested by the time you’re ready for a job.’”
