While many departments had outgrown their previous space before moving into the Brown-Kopel Engineering Student Achievement Center, the Office of Career Development and Corporate Relations is still growing into its space. 

Established in 2018, CDCR seeks to equip students to discover, develop and launch purposeful careers by providing tailored services and resources as well as building valuable industry partnerships. 

Jessica Bowers, manager of career development and coaching, said the office encourages students to come early and come often during their time in college.

“You can begin designing your engineering career during your first year at Auburn,” she said. “To accomplish our team’s mission, we offer resources and one-on-one or group meetings with students that facilitate the process of discovering their unique interests, building career materials, testing out career prototypes and securing their first-destination after Auburn. These services include discussion of traditional topics such as preparing a resume, networking and identifying search strategies for an internship or full-time position.”

Over the past year, CDCR has worked to initiate, develop and deepen relationships with alumni and companies to expand the Auburn Engineering network to provide a wide array of opportunities for companies to engage with students. In addition, CDCR collaborated with the chambers of commerce and economic development teams in industry hubs within the state to showcase industry opportunities in particular areas such as Huntsville and Auburn-Opelika. It has also partnered with engineering departments on discipline-specific programming such as the recent Civil and Biosystems Engineering Career Fair. 

All of these events have been held in the Brown-Kopel Center.

“Brown-Kopel has made a tremendous difference in the ability to offer access for companies to interact with students in a meaningful way. Students are comfortable in the building, as it has become home to them this fall, and employers have been impressed with its tangible representation of the college’s commitment to a student-centered engineering education,” said Apryl Mullins, assistant director of corporate relations.

One such example is the abundant interview rooms built into the CDCR suite in the Brown-Kopel Center. Companies can use the space to conduct interviews for co-ops, internships and full-time positions right in the center of the engineering campus. Students are also able to utilize these rooms as a quiet space for phone or video interviews, as well as a place to practice their interviewing skills with skilled interviewers such as professional staff and alumni. 

In September, CDCR worked with the Engineering Young Alumni Council to host a mock interview event, resulting in 83 mock interviews and 50 resume reviews for students in their freshman year through graduate programs.  Like many of the college’s other departments, CDCR has found the newfound proximity to students has paid off. 

“We have already exceeded the number of one-on-one student meetings we held last year between September and May. In fact, we held that amount and more between August and October of this year,” Bowers said.