(WACO, Texas) – More than 450 Texas State Technical College students and alumni from the East Williamson County, North Texas and Waco campuses attended the first day of TSTC’s Fall 2024 Industry Job Fair held Tuesday, Sept. 24, in Waco.
Representatives of more than 80 companies focused on electrical utility, engineering and manufacturing filled the atrium at the Industrial Technology Center. The event was hosted by TSTC’s Career Services department.
Flavio Tello-Saenz, an electrical field technician at Koenig & Bauer in Dallas, learned about his company when he was a Mechatronics Technology student at TSTC’s Harlingen campus. On Tuesday, Tello-Saenz was telling students why his company was great to work at. He has worked at Koenig & Bauer for more than five years.
“I always like to promote trades,” Tello-Saenz said. “I think trade schools are a great start to a professional career.”
Rodney Hall, site support technical lead at Mars Wrigley in Waco, said it is important for the company to keep a pipeline of applicants open, especially at TSTC.
“They (the students) are our future,” he said.
Students gathered information from companies and grabbed the occasional stress toy, piece of candy or koozie.
Andrew Mills, a fourth-semester Industrial Systems student from Burleson, attends TSTC’s North Texas campus. He was at the job fair with his class and had a goal of talking to as many people as possible.
“Our instructors are on board with us coming here to make contacts in the industry and make plans past graduation,” Mills said.
Some students were attending their first TSTC job event.
Diego Ramos, a first-semester Precision Machining Technology student from Temple, said he is excited about his program because it is math-based, and he enjoys hands-on work.
“I wanted to look around at the job opportunities and see who I can talk to,” he said.
Garrison Nation, of Tolar, is a first-semester Instrumentation Technology student who said he wanted to get early exposure to potential employers.
TSTC’s Thursday, Sept. 26, job fair will feature construction, maintenance and technical services programs. The Thursday, Oct. 17, event will feature aviation and transportation programs.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.
