Students attend 28th annual Career Fair

Trading the traditional classroom attire of t-shirts, jeans and flip-flops for suits and business attire, students across campus prepared for the career fair. Between 2,400 and 2,600 of Tech's industrious students fell in line each day at Tech's twenty-eighth annual Career Fair, waiting for a shot to create a lasting impression with one or more of 1,000 recruiters representing over 400 companies.

Hosted by the Career Services Department, the Career Fair took place on Monday, September 10 and Tuesday, September 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, providing students a glimpse into the recruitment process of the career world and a chance to establish connections with potential employers. The Career Fair's purpose is to provide students and alumni the opportunity to learn about available jobs in the work force, explore career options and begin a career network.

"The Career Fair is the kickoff to the job recruitment season, which starts around late September or early October. It provides momentum for both students seeking jobs and the companies eager to employ some of the nation's finest," said Charlie Warendh, Career Fair Team Chairman.

"It gives students a chance to learn about the companies and companies the chance to learn about the students. Most importantly, students actively pursuing a job can present themselves and increase their chances of name recognition among those hiring," Warendh said.

The ten-member Career Fair Team shoulders the responsibility for organizing this momentous event. This student-led organization begins planning all aspects of the fair in late May, organizing all details throughout the summer until the culmination of the event in September.

Mainly responsible for scouting companies, the Career Fair Team contacts numerous companies during the early planning stages and adds contacts to its database for future reference as the company recruitment process continues.

An explosion in the demand for jobs combined with Tech's unwavering reputation and consistent climb in rankings accounts for the large growth of companies desiring to recruit at the Career Fair. The number of participating companies nearly doubled in the last four years.

In 2003, approximately 250 companies participated in the Career Fair. This year, however, 440 came to seek Tech students. Typically, meeting the participant quota for the Career Fair takes close to three and a half months, but the spots for this year's fair filled within three weeks of the registration date.

Highly publicized and well-recognized companies such as Google and Microsoft debuted at the fair this year, and lesser known local and regional companies had the chance to introduce themselves to potential employees.

Each company that registered was assigned a booth located in the atrium of the coliseum or in the center of the arena. To allow as many companies as possible to participate in the career fair, potential employers were allowed a booth on only one of the days.

Traditionally, booths only lined the upper floor. Because of the surge in corporate participants, the Career Fair expanded down to the coliseum floor for the first time. To accommodate the vast number of companies, Institute President G. Wayne Clough worked with the Career Fair Team and Career Services to accommodate the number of participants and to utilize the Coliseum. To the benefit of all job-seeking students, not a single company that applied for a slot was refused entry.

"Tech hosts the largest student Career Fair in the nation. This year's fair is the largest that Tech has ever had, surpassing its own and all those at other schools," Warendh said.

Although upperclassmen and graduate students typically make the most of these opportune days, Career Services encouraged and welcomed every Tech student-undergraduate and graduate-as well as alumni. Seniority did not factor into entrance at the Career Fair. All who came were admitted upon presenting their BuzzCards.

Employment opportunities encompassed all majors, from International Affairs and Modern Languages to the currently most demanded majors of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering. Companies presented positions of all types, including cooperative jobs, internships and entry-level jobs. The number of available positions per employer ranged from one to "unlimited."

"The Tech Career Fair is a very important testing ground. This is Wachovia's first year participating in the Tech Career Fair. The need for college graduates has increased 400 percent. We recognize that they are the future of our organization, so we attack the best colleges," said Tom Lamendola, Wachovia College Recruiting Manager.

Although Wachovia is one of the few companies that did not accept resumes at the Career Fair, its recruiters consider those that show interest seriously. For Wachovia like for any other company, a student who creates a positive memorable impression within the first ten to fifteen seconds has a greater chance of being contacted by the company for an interview after completing the online job application.

"We want to increase [co-op students'] breadth of experience. We rotate them among different departments. By the time of graduation, co-ops are experienced in three or four different areas," said Therese A. Dean, recruiter for Crowder Construction Company.

"Our ultimate goal is for co-op students to continue jobs with the company after graduation. We bring them in young, and cultivate them. We want to see their growth from the beginning of their work to graduation," Dean said.

Multiple lines for notables such as NASA, 3M, Intel, Google and Microsoft stretched along a lengthy portion of the coliseum's atrium, but smaller, less recognized companies often had comparable job offers. Atlanta-based technological company Stradis hires many Tech graduates and seeks to hire more in the future.

"As a smaller company, we definitely notice that students seem more interested in larger companies. In our case, the benefit of approaching a smaller company is crucial-you deal directly with the people making the decisions and whom you will be working with. If the students recognize the smaller companies, they'd realize that they offer generous, competitive offers compared to larger companies," said Adam Preble, a Stradis recruiter.

Creating a good impression with a recruiter indubitably increases one's chances of getting a position, especially since companies collected resumes by the hundreds both days. However, not all hope is lost for those who did not attend. Most companies require online job applications and resubmissions of resumes, and many will return to Tech for on-campus interviews within a few months.

The sheer breadth of companies in attendance and the chance for face-to-face interaction makes the Career Fair a unique way to search for a potential job offer. A co-op or internship can be a great way to get a foot in the door of reputable companies, and a full-time job is typically the next step in the transition from college to the corporate world.