Columbia Engineering Fall 2026 Graduate Career Fair
Columbia's grad-only engineering fair: 1,600 MS and PhD candidates, one room, one day.
Morningside Heights, New York, NY 10027
What this event is
Columbia Engineering's Fall 2026 Graduate Career Fair takes place Thursday, October 1, 2026 from 10 AM to 3 PM in person on the Morningside campus. It is built for the school's 18 MS and 13 PhD programs and draws employers recruiting technical talent. Registration for students runs through the school's career platform.
Roles you will actually see
Who should go
Columbia MS and PhD students in CS, EE, data science and related programs looking for full-time roles or summer internships.
Grad fairs at Columbia skew toward finance, quant and big tech, which is where the H-1B-friendly employers live. Go early; the lines at the bank and hedge fund tables are brutal by noon. Ask directly whether the role is open to candidates needing sponsorship, because many teams have a rule and the recruiter knows it. If you are international, skip the tables where the answer is a shrug and spend that time where the answer is yes.
Show up prepared
- 1Check the employer list in the career portal a week out and rank them by sponsorship history
- 2Print 15 resumes tailored to one track (backend, ML or quant), not a generic version
- 3Prepare a 30-second thesis or capstone summary in plain language
Sponsorship reality
Sponsorship varies by employer. No organizer publishes sponsorship. Check each employer you plan to meet against H-1B disclosure data before you go, and ask in the first two minutes so neither side wastes the conversation.
Showing up is half of it.
The other half is being first to the roles these employers post, and having something real to show when you get there.
See roles the minute they go live, tailor one resume per employer, and reach the hiring manager directly. Walk into the event as a follow-up, not a stranger.
Start free13 weeks of building real AI agents and automations, so the answer to "what have you built" is a link, not a story.
Explore the program