MURFREESBORO — Dozens
of MTSU students again took advantage of an opportunity to make sell themselves
to potential future employers at the Business Exchange for Student Talent, or
BEST, Career Fair held recently in the Student Union Ballroom.
Sponsored
by faculty in the management and marketing departments in the Jones College of
Business, BEST takes on a “speed networking” format in which groups of students
meet with employment recruiters stationed at tables throughout the ballroom.
After a 15-minute exchange, students move to another table.
Marketing
professor and internship coordinator Laura Buckner said that since the primary
purpose of BEST is to help students get full-time jobs, students are strongly
encouraged to research the participating employers beforehand so that they come
to the fair well prepared to ask and answer questions.
The
three-hour fair is geared toward students majoring in marketing, business
administration, management and entrepreneurship within Jones College, although
other students can also attend. Participating companies were hiring for
positions such as entry-level marketing, sales, logistics, retail and
management professionals. Internships were also available.
“It cuts
across a lot of disciplines,” Buckner said. “And we’ve gotten good feedback
from the employers. … This was a good event for us.”
Among
the 100-plus students attending March 15 event was Kaytlin Culpepper, a senior
marketing major from Cleveland, Tennessee, who’s graduating in May.
Culpepper
said she’s previously attended two other career fairs on campus and felt they
helped her better prepare for this one. While there were still some nerves at
first when she sat down at her first table, those butterflies soon gave way to
growing confidence and a determination to connect with the right company to
help launch her marketing career.
Culpepper
came equipped with copies of her resume and a belief that MTSU had properly
prepared her to land a job with one of the 31 companies attending the fair,
ranging from Verizon to Aflac to Cavalry Logistics.
“I think
I’ve come out of this with three pretty strong (job) opportunities,” said
Culpepper, who is currently interning with a web marketing company. “Graduating
in May, I felt like I needed to go and get more of those connections and
relationships.”
In
addition to attending BEST looking for talent, Dale Carnegie Training of
Tennessee has an even stronger tie to MTSU. The university entered into an
exclusive partnership with the corporate development firm that requires all
Jones College graduate and undergraduate students to take a Dale Carnegie
course for credit before obtaining their degree.
On this
day, the company was also seeking qualified job seekers, and it was an alumnus
returning to campus to facilitate that process.
Andrew
George, a May 2015 graduate and former student body president, was thrilled to
come back to his alma mater as marketing coordinator for Dale Carnegie of
Tennessee. He was recruiting candidates for inside sales positions.
“It was
awesome to see candidates … put their best feet forward,” he said.
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