Though the floor will be a little more crowded than usual, the Smith Career Center will welcome a record number of employers to the Renaissance Coliseum for the Fall Job & Internship Fair on Thursday.
Currently, 154 national and local employers will attend the fair to recruit for full-time positions and internships. More than 20 of the employers attending the event are recruiting at Bradley for the first time.
“This is the most we’ve ever had at one fair,” said Executive Director of the Smith Career Center Jane Linnenburger. “I am very excited, but for me I am most pleased to have a beautiful facility to accommodate large numbers of employers and students in a comfortable and attractive setting.”
Thursday’s job fair will host 27 more employers than last year’s fall fair and 60 more employers than the job fair in 2010.
“It is nice to know there are places out there hiring,” said senior secondary education major Ryne Koeppel. “It shows that there are more jobs available and they want Bradley students.”
To accommodate the large number of employers, Linnenburger said an additional row was added to the floor plan as well as more tables to each row.
“Having more employers at the fair is good for students and will open windows of opportunities,” said sophomore sociology and criminal justice major Judith De La Vega. “Hopefully more students will walk away with jobs and interviews.”
Linnenburger said she feels that an increase in employers might be attributed to several factors including an upturn in the economy, working closely with Bradley’s National Alumni Board and marketing campus recruiting events.
“[The Smith Career Center] worked with university marketing and developed the tagline ‘Beyond Bradley’,” she said. “Several marketing pieces were introduced in 2012.”
If the number of employers who attend Bradley’s career fairs continues to increase, Linnenburger said the concourse of the arena might be used in the future to accommodate more employers.
“Employers that go to other career fairs say it is best to be all together, rather than separating them in several locations,” she said. “One thing we have also considered is pulling particular industries for separate fairs.”
In the upcoming week, the Smith Career Center will host several workshops and seminars to prepare students for the fair.
“Preparing [for a career fair] always involves having an almost perfect resume, being able to talk about themselves and wearing business attire,” Linnenburger said. “Above all students shouldn’t stay away because they haven’t had enough time to prepare. They should still come and make an effort to network for future careers.”
