Seventh Annual ICS Industry Showcase Forges Career Connections
A rainy first day could not stop the seventh annual ICS Industry Showcase October 14-15. More than 20 industry partners interested in recruiting ICS undergraduate and graduate students for full-time positions and summer internships gathered at the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building (ISEB). Approximately 1,000 students in the UC Irvine Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences took the opportunity to advance their careers by gaining new information, networking and even applying for new jobs and internships.
The two-day event included information sessions with presentations by Cotality, Pacific Life, SAP and Google. Each shared an overview of their organization as well as career advice, application and resume suggestions, resources and more. One timeless tip came from Jeremy Ong, Google Program Manager and UC Irvine alum: “Your resume is never finished.” He explained that it is constantly evolving and should be revisited and revised often to reflect changing experience and the organization and position applied for.
Addressing an audience question about advice for current students, Pierce Taylor, Google Software Engineer and UC Irvine alum, said, “There are so many opportunities on campus, whether it’s events or groups to get involved with, meet other people, build awesome things together… as students, there are way more resources than you know right now so dig into those as hard as you can. Internship opportunities go away after you graduate, so focus on getting internships anywhere that you can right now.”
At the Recruitment Fair, students braved long lines and their nerves to meet with representatives from companies like Cotality, CoStar Group, Google, IDTech, Ingram Micro, Leidos, Netlist, Numecent, Pacific Life, RTX, SAP, TMPEC, LLC, TP-Link, Viant, Visual Concepts and Wayvia.
Long-lasting Partnerships
As one of just a handful of standalone computer science schools, ICS is home to more than 3,600 undergraduates and 900 graduate students acquiring expertise in areas like AI, machine learning, software development, game design, data science and analytics in the Departments of Computer Science, Informatics and Statistics. Employers find the education and experience ICS students receive highly valuable.
“We have had great success hiring.”
Nicci Leibold, Early Career Program Manager at Pacific Life, explained: “This is Pacific Life’s second year of a corporate sponsorship with ICS, and we love this event because we get the opportunity to host an information session to share more about our company, culture and opportunities we have available for students. We have had great success hiring. We’ve hired several students into our internship program that have converted into full-time hires and seen outstanding results.”
Emma Khachikian, internship program manager and recruiter at Cotality, also points to the excellence of ICS students: “Our seven-year partnership with UC Irvine is built on one simple truth: the talent here is unmatched. As a data-first company, we’ve had incredible success with UC Irvine students – last year, 10 of our 12 California summer interns came from this campus. This collaboration is vital to our mission.”
“Our seven-year partnership with UC Irvine is built on one simple truth: the talent here is unmatched… This collaboration is vital to our mission.”
Attendees’ Experience
Some Anteaters showed up early on the first day, despite the rainy weather, and shared their reason for attending.
“I’m here because in the era of AI, where resumes can be built so easily, networking is how you get interviews,” said Daniel Herrera, ’25 in Computer Science, “At least for me, I’ve done a lot of cold applying, and nothing happened. But going to these events and talking with people has led me to having an interview even on the same day. Every interview I’ve ever received is because I went to a career fair, talked to a person, and then the next day I even had an interview or maybe the following week.”
In a full-circle moment, Connor Delacruz, Pacific Life IT Leadership Program Associate and UC Irvine alum in software engineering, told attendees, “I was in your position a year ago. Take advantage of the career fairs, any networking events, especially that are hosted on campus. When you know professionals are coming to network, jump at those opportunities. I feel like that’s really undervalued today. A lot of people are just mass applying, relying on being a number in the system. Making sure that you’re attentive, showing that you actually care about coming and recruiting, that’s a benefit to everybody.”
“I was in your position a year ago. Take advantage of the career fairs, any networking events, especially that are hosted on campus… I feel like that’s really undervalued today.”
Delacruz also highlighted one of his experiences that helped him stand out professionally:
“I think one of the biggest things is the capstone project at Project Expo that offers partnering with various companies within the realm of IT and in the industry. It speaks not just to the strength of the UC Irvine ICS students and the faculty and the program, but also having those opportunities really help build a pipeline from being a student as an undergrad or master’s into the industry.”
ICS Dean Marios Papaefthymiou said, “I am thrilled to welcome our valued industry partners back to campus for the 7th Annual Industry Showcase. This event has become a cornerstone for the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, connecting our talented students with leading companies that are shaping the future of technology. Year after year, I’m impressed by the meaningful connections formed here — connections that often lead to internships, careers, and lasting professional relationships.”
For information on the ICS Corporate Partners program, which includes an invitation to the annual ICS Industry Showcase event, please contact Jason King at jason.king@uci.edu. For more highlights from the day, visit the Industry Showcase homepage.