Norwich Tech students get a look at career opportunities

NORWICH – Norwich Technical High School senior Dylan Renshaw walked among the many booths Wednesday morning at the schools third annual career fair.

Representatives from 55 local institutions, including the Norwich Fire Department, Mohegan Sun and Hartford Health Care, were participating to show students the kind of jobs that were available once they finished school.

Despite the many options in front of him, Renshaw, 18, of Norwich and a carpentry student, said he already had a goal in mind.
“I’m looking to join Electric Boat,” he said. If that doesn’t work, he’s looking to join a local carpentry union, the Central and Eastern Connecticut Carpenters Local No. 24.

Renshaw was among hundreds of Norwich Tech students who got the chance to see what opportunities await them after graduation and to talk to representatives about what qualifications are necessary for the job they want.

Lucky for Renshaw, both EB and the carpentry union had booths set up at the fair.

Jaime Miller, the school’s social worker, said students prepared for the event ahead of time through their developmental guidance classes. Although the high school seniors are the ones that must be more concerned with their career paths after high school, all grades are involved in the career fair, Miller said.

“The freshmen walk around the booths and figure out what they need to do to get to their goals they’ve set for themselves now. The older kids are looking for the next step. They can see what jobs are available and can treat this as a networking event,” she said.

Prior to going to the career fair, Renshaw said students received job hunting tips from their classes.

“We had mock interviews and we learned what to do to prepare for those like how to answer questions and not to be too over confident during an interview,” he said.

Renshaw said a lot of his classmates after graduation want to a job in their chosen field of study in high school.

“We have that ability to go into a trade and into jobs right out of schools unlike (NorwichFreeAcademy) where their options are to mostly go straight to college. Here, you don’t have to figure out what you can do, you already know,” he said.

Jessica Ladd, 17, of Taftville, Emily Kivela, 17, of Moosup, and Lauren Veile, 17, of Norwich, all seniors, walked among the booths. Ladd and Veile were looking at schools and Kivela wanted a job after graduation.

The three said while some of their classmates, like Renshaw, want to stay in their field of study, others wanted to find something new.

“This is the perfect place to go because there are a lot of options and there’s still enough time to apply for a school,” Kivela said.

“And if they changed their minds, this opens a lot of areas for jobs as well,” Veile said.