McWhorter School of Building Science Celebrates 100% Career Placement

For the students who graduated from Auburn’s McWhorter School of Building Science (BSCI) last fall, there was no downtime before starting out in the real world. That’s because every single December 2020 graduate of the building science program had already lined up a full-time job in the construction industry. “It is not unusual for our students to have multiple offers,” said BSCI Career Services Specialist Angie White. “I have two to four companies a week calling about hiring our graduates, even during this pandemic.” Recently, White has been contacted by companies like Harris Coggin Building Company of Birmingham, Steve Powell Homes of Atlanta, Dunn Construction of Huntsville, Ross Built Construction of Sarasota, Florida, and Landmark Construction of Athens, Georgia.

While COVID-19 has changed how things run in the BSCI Office of Career Services, it has not limited the number of opportunities students have to connect with potential employers. During Fall 2020, the traditional BSCI ‘Meet and Greet’ sessions, where students engage with construction company representatives on campus, were conducted across a conference room table in a socially distanced setting. This semester, Meet and Greets are back in the lobby of Miller Gorrie Center, which allows for increased attendance and impromptu conversations. Last summer’s internships were mostly virtual, but currently more than half of internship programs have returned to having an in-person component.

The school’s virtual career fairs have been quite successful. Using the Career Fair Plus online platform, students are able to browse companies on the platform, upload their résumés for employers and then build a schedule of live video interviews in 10-minute time slots. This spring’s Career Fair on March 3 was virtual, but the school anticipates returning to an in-person event next fall.

The demand for Auburn building science graduates stems from the school’s dedicated faculty, loyal alumni and industry partners and rigorous coursework. “Career Services, and really the entire building science faculty, have made it so easy for us to get in touch with employers through the career fair and the informational meetings held in Gorrie,” said senior Steven Prescott. “I ended up accepting an offer from McShane Construction and I had 3 other offers on top of that.”