Aarti
Peter Birzgalis arrived with an armful of resumes to Humber College’s FAST Annual Career Fair on Feb. 5.
The second-year sustainable energy and building technology student was one of more than 500 who visited this year’s job fair on Humber’s North campus with the hopes of landing a work placement in their field of interest.
For Birzgalis, that meant zeroing in jobs related to energy resources.
“My dream is to become a building technologist in which I will manage how a building uses energy to improve its energy use,” he said.
The fair, organized by Humber’s faculty of applied sciences and technology, gave students in these fields the chance to meet — and make an impression on — more than 50 potential employers.
“The fair is an opportunity for [our students] to shine,” said Janice Wojcik, manager of work-integrated learning at Humber’s faculty of applied sciences and technology. “There are many companies who are looking for students for co-op, summer and full-time placements.”
Wojcik said student placements may be paid or unpaid and completed for course credit.
Multimatic Mechanisms, a global manufacturer of vehicle-closure systems which supplies automative parts for companies like Hyundai and Ford, was one of the businesses participating at the fair.
Shahzad Cheema, maintenance supervisor at Multimatic Mechanisms, said the company regularly participates in career fairs at Humber.
He said he often sees potential in design and engineering students enrolled in the school’s Electronics Engineering Technology program.
“We have many employees from Humber who are now working full-time with us,” Cheema said.
By the end of Birzgalis’s time at the fair, he had applied for placements with eight different companies, including Complete Energy Solutions and DPM Energy.
He said he appreciated the opportunity to cast his net wide, while building valuable connections in the industry.
Now, he awaits the coveted call for a job interview.
“There were many companies here which do work related to building systems, so I made sure to apply wherever I could,” Birzgalis said.