Great careers are Tandon Made!

Are you wondering what it’s like for a graduating senior to be looking for a job after more than a year of dealing with a pandemic?  Just ask Karine-Frédérique Loriot, Associate Dean of Career Services, and don’t be surprised if she can’t hide her smile.   

Recent surveys of graduating seniors show that with some 85 percent of the members of the Class of 2021 reporting, students are already accepting jobs with big-name employers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia well before commencement — and being offered starting salaries significantly above the national average across various fields within our departments.

That good news applies across majors and industries. With Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering students across the country earning an average starting salary of slightly under $70K, for example, Tandon’s average CBE grad fields an entry-level offer of more than 80K. Similarly, an average entry-level computer scientist takes home $81K, while those graduating from Tandon top that by some $25K, earning starting salaries that average $106K. (Top salary recorded for a 2021 CS grad? How’s $170K sound?)

“Our new grads are attracting job offers that make it abundantly clear just how much employers value their Tandon education and skills,” Loriot says. “Of course, starting salary is just one metric. I’m equally thrilled that they’re being recruited by such a wide variety of top-notch companies and will be taking on exciting roles that will allow them to make an impact in areas they’re passionate about.”

Loriot and her colleagues — Assistant Director of Career Services John Cardillo and Operations Manager and Coach Jamie Cheng — ensure that Tandon students put their best foot forward and apply an unconventional engineering approach to supporting their future employers. The three supply a number of services, starting from Day One — and even before, since last year they inaugurated a series of summer “career academies,” aimed at giving incoming students an idea of the help available to them and an overall look at the employment landscape.

Once a student gets to Tandon, they log into TandonConnect, the online Career Services portal, and fill out their profile so that it’s ready and waiting whenever they want to start the search for an internship or job (certainly no later than junior year, the team cautions). Loriot and her colleagues know the search for a job or internship can seem daunting — particularly when you consider that last year alone there were well over 1,000 job postings on TandonConnect to comb through — but they follow students through each step of the process.

They each set themselves a goal of speaking to 17 to 22 students every day, to check-in and discuss any issues of concern. Aside from that invaluable one-to-one counseling, which can cover everything from what questions might be asked at a job interview to negotiating a better salary offer, the team plans several career fairs throughout the year, many featuring the school’s more than 750 employer partners, who are looking specifically for the skills and talents that Tandon students developed during their time here.

Loriot admits that the move to virtual job searching and networking necessitated by the pandemic has been challenging. “The fact that our employment picture is so good, even in the midst of these circumstances, is a testament to our students’ preparation, skills, and talent,” she says.

Career-goal snapshots

Nicole Fraynd (’22)

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering 

My goal was always to make a contribution to the healthcare field, and after researching schools, NYU Tandon seemed perfect because of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and its emphasis on hands-on learning.

Even though it meant leaving my family back in Panama, I decided to go for it; my family understands that the opportunities in the U.S. are unsurpassed.

I have always stayed really busy here: I’m the president of the Jewish Student Union, a member of Alpha Epsilon Phi and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and I’m active in iGEM, a Vertically Integrated Project focused on synthetic biology and building genetically engineered systems.

Still, when it came time to find an internship, I was relatively clueless until Karine came to one of my classes and gave a presentation. She invited us to meet with her to polish our resumes and practice our interviewing skills, and she let us know that she’s always happy to hop on a call if we hit a roadblock. Thanks to her and her staff, I’ve already got a wonderful summer internship lined up at Bristol Myers Squibb, and I know they’ll be a similar help when I’m ready to graduate.

Sophie Gossack (’21)

Business and Technology Management 

I have to admit that it can feel surreal to be looking for a job during a global pandemic, so I’m very glad I had Tandon’s Career Services working with me. Karine was the one who suggested I attend a job fair sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers and helped me prepare to navigate it.

Every major employer you can think of was represented, and the really large companies like Google and Apple had dozens of recruiters tuning in. When you saw a company you were interested in, you entered their breakout room and put the equivalent of your elevator pitch, which I had thankfully honed with the Career Services team’s help, right in the chat function. If it caught a recruiter’s eye, they invited you to chat privately. That actually turned out to be a great experience — it didn’t have the stress of a formal interview, and they all seemed genuinely interested in telling you about the company and finding out about you.

All my preparation paid off because I’ve received and accepted a post as a Washington, D.C.-based management consultant at the firm Booz Allen Hamilton. I'll be working in their Civilian Services Group, and I'm excited to consult with government agencies like the U.S. Department of the Treasury. I'm hoping to one day go to law school and get involved in the policy and regulation of technology. No matter what I ultimately do, I feel very confident about my networking and interviewing skills because of the guidance I got at Tandon.