Speed networking draws 160 students, 40 employers to campus
MURFREESBORO — About 160 MTSU business majors donned
business attire and brought their best elevator pitches to special career fair
that drew 40 employers looking to recruit new hires and interns.
The
Business Exchange for Student Talent, also known as BEST, hosted the career
fair earlier this week in the Student Union Ballroom. Sponsored by the Department
of Management and Marketing in the Jones College of Business, the “speed
networking” event allowed students to conduct short interviews with employers
in small groups before moving on to the next table.
Watch
a video from the event at http://youtu.be/jqiP6a4MZww.
Dressed
in a nice navy blue business suit and resume in hand, senior marketing major
Brittney Potts of Summertown, Tennessee, left the fair without the internship
she wanted, but satisfied that she had gotten on the professional radar of
several companies in attendance.
“I
was really looking to go in for an internship opportunity, and I found out a
lot of companies were looking,” Potts said. “It was my first career fair, so it
was kind of nerve-racking, but I handed my resume out to a lot of people. … I
have a few that I think I’ll get a callback from.”
Potts
said that for future career fairs she’ll research the companies a bit more
beforehand, “that way I’ll know which companies would be a better fit for me.”
Employers
on hand at the April 15 event represented a wide variety of industries, ranging
from AFLAC to The Hershey Co. and from Waffle House to Waste Management.
Full-time positions and internships in the fields of marketing, management and
sales were available.
Souk
Wisithaphong, a recruiter for convenience store chain Speedway LLC in Smyrna,
Tennessee, said she was searching for candidates for the company’s leadership
and internship programs.
“I
found a lot of good candidates here,” she said. “I look forward to getting in
touch them … and hopefully start scheduling some interviews.”
That’s
just the sort activity organizers craved.
“Employers
have (given) fantastic feedback about the event, not only the number of
students that they’ve seen, but the quality of preparedness,” said Laura
Bucker, an instructor in the Department of Management and Marketing and one of
the fair organizers. “They see that students are serious minded and ready to
start their careers.”
Marketing
major Malik Stoudemire, a sophomore from Chattanooga, Tennessee, hasn't yet
decided his specific career path, but used his experience at the career fair to
build the necessary interviewing skills to land that dream job upon graduation.
“I
got a lot of tips on how to network and building relationships,” he said. “This
was my first fair, and I feel that the next one I go to I’ll be more prepared.
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