Hyundai Motor America hosted a career event at its Fountain Valley campus, giving young people a chance to visit the sprawling site and also look to a possible future career there.
“What this career experience day does is it exposes the students to all different types of careers at Hyundai and Genesis,” said Brandon Ramirez, a veteran Hyundai employee who organized the visit.
We’ve covered these interactive student experiences in the past, but with middle schoolers. This time, it’s college freshmen and sophomores, and Hyundai timed it for Hispanic Heritage Month, with this day put on by an employee group called Amigos Unidos.
“A lot of the leaders for these workshops are Hispanic, but it’s open to everyone,” noted Ramirez, adding that all the employees take time out from their busy workdays to mentor the collegians.
“I would love to work here someday. I’m hoping that’s in the cards. I think Hyundai is such a cool place to work,” said USC student Amber Yacoub during the event. She had previously interned at Hyundai.
“I just want to meet a lot of new people and expand my networking, and get a lot of information from them,” said Christofer Vasquez, who was visiting from CSULB.
“One of my first real professional networking workshop opportunities, so I was really excited to come here today and just absorb everything I can learn,” said Maya Reshef, who attends UC Irvine.
Hyundai team members volunteered to showcase various departments within a company like this, passing along their deep knowledge of the business.
Then, they held fast-paced critical thinking mini workshops, a preview of actually working in the industry. The students rotated through different work groups, which involved everything from product planning, to marketing, to legal.
Sure, this is community outreach at its finest. But a day like this also serves Hyundai well, as they have an ongoing need for future talent.
“Hyundai is growing so much, so there’s a lot of opportunities for jobs,” said Ramirez. “And then there is also a shortage of technicians at our dealerships.”
And while these young adults are still a few years away from starting a career, it’s never too early to get a jump on things.
“I brought my resume, so if it comes up I can give them out,” said Yacoub with an enthusiastic smile.
