Net...Working

Students and recruiters connect at Student Networking Event

By Chris Posey, Online Marketing Lead

The Mandalay Bay Convention Center Ballroom was packed from wall to wall with geosciences students from around the globe at the Student Networking Event, held during the SEG 82nd Annual Meeting and International Exposition in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to connecting an international cadre of student with corporate recruiters and university faculty, the affair, held 5 November, served as a sort of culmination of events following the Student Excellence Program (SEP) and the Student Leadership Symposium (SLS), both of which were held over the weekend preceding the Annual Meeting. SEG dignitaries such as SEG President Bob Hardage, David Monk and Don Steeples were also on hand at the event.

Students circulated among both recruiter tables and among old friends and new faces in the crowd of hundreds. Corporate participants included Chevron, Shell, and Total, among many others. In all, recruiters from 23 corporations lined the ballroom walls with tables and tchotchkes; each with the intention of making contact with the cream of the geophysics crop.

Sponsored by Chevron, CGGVeritas, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, Nexen, PGS, Seismic Solutions, Shell, StatOil, and WesternGeco, the SEG Student Networking Event is unique in that it is based not upon presentation, but upon exchange. The value of the event lies in its facilitation of relationship-building that would likely never occur outside of this milieu.