Check out the Matchmaker Program page of our website for the most up-to-date list!

Use the EIA Job Portal to tell us who you want to work for and we’ll prioritize them as the next company we add!

Use the form on the Matchmaker Program page of our website to contact EIA staff and start the process!

Absolutely! We want this to be a resource to anyone and everyone in our bridge builder family (students, alumni, mentors, etc.). Plus, our partner companies will get even more value out of it if it includes potential hires at different career stages.

All mentors in our program are called “Bridge Corps”, so mentors who come from our Matchmaker Program companies will play essentially the same role as Bridge Corps mentors who have joined via other means. Some Matchmaker partner companies may pick existing Bridge Corps mentors to serve as their official “Matchmaker mentors”. Other companies may select new people to serve as their mentors. In the latter case, the new mentors can learn the ropes from the more experienced Bridge Corps mentors.

That’s totally fine. Be honest with them about it and explain who you want to work for instead. They can use that feedback to adapt their recruiting processes and/or help connect you with opportunities at partner companies. EIA can also help connect you with other companies. Be sure to fill in your details on the EIA Job Portal since that gets shared with all of our partner companies, not just the ones assigned to your project.

Congratulations! Let people know that when they try to recruit you and keep them in mind for future opportunities. Otherwise just focus on your bridge project.

For our first year, we focused on companies where we had alumni (both student alumni and mentor alumni) who could help connect us to the right people at their company. As the program grows, we aim to expand to more and more company partners, but it is likely that alumni will often play an important role in introducing us to their companies.

The majority of our students and alumni are civil engineers, so that happens to be a common theme for the companies we have involved in the first year of the Matchmaker Program. However, many of the companies do other types of engineering and some do non-engineering activities as well (architecture, construction, project management, international development, consulting, business, technology, etc.). We plan to expand to more companies every year. We will use feedback from our students on what companies you want to work for to prioritize which companies to add first, so be sure to share that information with us.

The list of partner companies is being added to on a regular basis and can always be easily found on our website. We also didn’t want students to be overwhelmed or distracted by our current list at the expense of telling us about companies they want to work for who are NOT on our current list, since that’s the information we’ll use to prioritize which companies to add to our partner list in the future.

In our first year, companies can choose from the following three engagement opportunities: the EIA Job Portal, non-travel mentoring, and travel mentoring. The EIA Job Portal gives companies access to recruit students from all of our chapters. Mentoring gives companies the opportunity to build deeper relationships with students from the chapters they are matched with, further increasing the likelihood of successful hires. The Job Portal provides a broad and shallow outreach while mentoring provides a narrow and deep outreach.

The partner companies are committed to recruiting our students for internships and full time employment. They value the skills and experience our students gain in our program and recognize that recruiting from our network is more likely to yield good fits and higher quality hires than recruiting from the general student population. Some of the companies also provide employees to serve as mentors in our Bridge Corps Program. In the first year, companies are invited, but not required, to donate to EIA as well. Our hope is that companies will recognize the immense value of this program and donate more each year in gratitude. All funds received will be used to grow the Matchmaker Program, build more bridges, and engage more students.

We will send Job Portal access to our partner companies. They will either ask EIA to connect them to the students they’re interested in, or reach out directly, depending on their preference. The partner companies will also tell EIA if there are certain chapters they are most interested in recruiting from and we will do our best to match their mentors to projects that include those chapters. Once that matching process is complete, we will fill in the gaps with experienced Bridge Corps mentors who did not come through the Matchmaker Program to ensure every project has sufficient mentoring.

Yes. Chapters will still be welcome to request certain mentors on their Project Application each year. Like always, we can’t guarantee every chapter gets every match they want, but we will aim for that in the matching process.

Partner companies may reach out to students directly to recruit them for internships and full time positions, or they may ask EIA to connect them. Mentor matches will be released by EIA on Basecamp just like they have always been, usually in November after project matchups have been assigned.

No, the Matchmaker Program is for all EIA students, regardless of country of origin or study. The majority of our students and alumni are from the USA, so it makes sense that the majority of our partner companies are as well. But we do have several Canadian partner companies, and many of our partner companies have international offices around the world.

Since this is our first year, that is yet to be determined. Our ultimate goal is that every student who participates in our program would also be able to get an internship and/or full time job through our Matchmaker Program.

That’s the goal! Or if not, the groundwork you lay this year will further increase your chances for the following year. Companies appreciate prolonged commitment and consistency.

Sign up for the EIA Job Portal (linked on the page above) and accept a job/internship offer if you get one. The more successful case studies we have, the more popular the program will become. That will lead to more companies, which will attract more students, which will attract more companies, and so on. Also make a special effort to connect with and engage the mentors working with you on your project. Make sure you help them understand how they can be most helpful to you and make sure they feel valued. The better their experience, the more mentors and support companies will provide in the future. And let us know when you get recruited so we can highlight you as a success story to grow the program, and use your experience to improve it.

Not via the Job Portal, at least in its current form. But they know that the Job Portal is exclusively for students, alumni, and mentors involved with EIA in some way and they are free to ask EIA staff for feedback on how certain candidates from the Job Portal have performed in their work with EIA. Mentors from the partner companies will also have direct experience working with the students on the projects they are matched with.

You have already distinguished yourself from the crowd by joining EIA and signing up for our Job Portal. To set yourself apart even more, take on as much leadership as possible on your EIA project, do excellent work, and engage with your mentors as much as possible.

Traditional job search methods pit you against thousands, if not tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, of other students with fewer ways for you to stand out from the crowd. EIA’s partner companies have already decided to prioritize recruiting our students above the general pool of students they have access to through traditional recruiting methods because they know our students are more likely to have the skills, experiences, and qualities they’re looking for. So by signing up for our Job Portal, you have already put yourself in the top several hundred students these companies will be prioritizing. It is also more likely that our partner companies will match your values and offer the “give back” opportunities you’re looking for in an employer. You’ll also have more opportunities to build relationships with people at these companies through participating in our program, further increasing your chances of finding a company you’re excited about and getting hired by them.

So we can share that information with partner companies who will use it to decide who will be the best fits for their company based on the type of work and opportunities they have.

A list of companies attending the Career Fair can be seen on our Conference website under the “sponsors” tab. Nearly all of them are part of the Matchmaker Program. In the future, we aim to have all of the Matchmaker Program partners at the Career Fair each year.

Alumni will be encouraged to get their companies involved in the Matchmaker Program if they aren’t already, which will open up new opportunities for employees to get involved in mentoring and networking with mentors from other partner companies. All alumni will also be welcome to update their profiles in the EIA Job Portal every year in perpetuity, in case they are ever looking for new opportunities.