Ahvner Vazquez is a 19-year-old senior who plans to graduate with a degree in information technology from USF鈥檚 Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing in the fall. But before that happens, he wants to be able to line up an internship and then pursue his master鈥檚 degree.
鈥淥f course, that's what everyone here is looking for, really,鈥 Vazquez said. 鈥淏ut if I'm thinking more on details, I want to do something that has to do with big data numbers. I love playing with data. It feels like being an investigator.鈥
This week, he and other USF students attended the AI, Cybersecurity & Computing Career Fair at the Marshall Student Center on campus. The fair featured a diverse lineup of employers recruiting for internships, full-time roles and graduate opportunities.
Participating organizations included cybersecurity and tech firms such as 360 Advanced, CAE USA Inc., FDM Group and ReliaQuest; engineering and simulation specialists such as Aero Simulation; business and analytics recruiters like Advantive and The Villages; and graduate programs from Duke University.
While he certainly hopes to hear back from some of the inquiries he鈥檚 made, he sees the career fair as a way to develop his skills as a future job applicant.
鈥淚'm doing this more for the experience,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have a lot of interview experience, but I would love to be able to get some interviews, to be able to get used to that setting and just be able to find an internship, hopefully.鈥
Vazquez looked forward to meeting with recruiters from Miva Inc., which is a creator of e-commerce platforms for enterprise business. That鈥檚 an area he has experience with.
鈥淚've done a lot of things with e-commerce,鈥 he said. 鈥淚've done a lot of things with a lot of products of companies, like having the creative type of advertising.鈥
Vassil Kantchev, who is a freshman in the Bellini College majoring in cybersecurity, attended Thursday鈥檚 career fair looking ahead to possible internships.
鈥淚'm looking for something blue team oriented,鈥 he said. 鈥淪omething like a SOC analyst and stuff like that. I also want to make new connections.鈥
While he found some companies tailor their internships to students in their junior and senior years, Kantchev found others had opportunities for freshmen and sophomores.
CAE USA, a training company that specializes in defense and security forces, was one of particular interest to him, along with several government agencies.
鈥淚t looks like most of the government kind of companies offer a spectrum of jobs for everyone,鈥 he said.
For Vazquez, the ability to talk with a real person, and not just submitting resumes through an online web portal, was a big highlight of his experience at the career fair.
鈥淚t's pretty competitive,鈥 Vazquez said of the job and internship market. 鈥淭here's a lot of people here, but I think it's nice to be able to talk to people. Being able to talk to people face-to-face, because it helps to just be able to make a connection. Hopefully that connection helps me a little bit.鈥