Students from the university’s clubs and societies promoted themselves to local professionals on Nov. 3 as a part of the first annual reverse career fair.
Students set up tables and presented to visiting businesses and professionals about their participation in campus organizations and about themselves.
Leslie Shelby, assistant director of the Career Development Center, implemented this event.
“We were struggling to get students to come to traditional career fairs,” Shelby said. “So this was an event proposed to fix that problem. We always have employers asking us for interns. They wanted to meet the leaders on campus, and we thought this would be a great way to do that.”
The career fair was capped at 20 teams, and 30 employers attended. There was diversity of businesses as well as teams represented at the fair. The teams that were represented included the Society of Professional Journalists, Futuro, social clubs and others. Businesses included Caterpillar Finance, Aegis, Metro Police and even small businesses like Cullen Web Services.
Cindy Cullen of Cullen Web Services said she was excited about this opportunity.
“I got the email and was thrilled to come. I really enjoy working with interns,” Cullen said. “They have so much energy!”
Most of the professionals asked the teams about their majors, goals and how hard they work to achieve them. After each round, employers were asked to grade the teams, and at the end of the night, the teams with the highest points won cash prizes. This year’s winner was the Campus Veterans Organization.
“This career fair was very successful,” said Shelby. “We are already planning to do another one next fall!”