The bi-annual Business Career Fair was hosted on Sept. 21 and 22 in Reed Arena filled with recruiters from all over the country and hundreds of hopeful students dressed to the nines.
The event, in-person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, was hosted by the Business Student Council, or BSC, and featured dozens of tables set up for recruiters, a long queue for professional headshots and a strict business casual dress code. The Business Career Fair is a chance for students of all majors and graduation classes to meet recruiters excited to hire Aggies for dozens of positions.
Melton and Melton LLP recruiter Colin Andrews said there is an increased sense of nervousness in the air as many students attended their first in-person career fair.
“It’s more nerve-wracking being in person,” Andrews said. “But I think it’s more beneficial for sure.”
His partner Anna Dushex, Class of 2018, said she was excited to be back on campus and was marveled by the sight of young Aggies “blossoming” as time went on, becoming more comfortable putting their best foot forward when speaking to recruiters. Being a recent graduate herself, Dushex noted all the great memories being in Aggieland brings back.
On the other side, business management senior Lexi Horne spoke of her preparation to attend the Business Career Fair. With a focus on the Human Resources track, Horne said she did do a lap of the career fair as a freshman; however, said she only spoke to a few recruiters, as she then had no intentions of building a career.
“I kinda just made a master list of the tables I was going to go visit while I was down there,” Horne revealed. “It can be overwhelming if you’re unprepared or you’re going in there hoping someone will reach out to you.”
With a stack of resumes printed on cardstock from the Copy Corner, Horne said she made sure to individually address her documents to the companies she planned to speak to. Armed with her portfolio, Horne then patrolled the arena looking for familiar names and made an impression face-to-face.
Household names such as Amazon and Regions were in attendance looking for students to fill internships, co-ops and even full-time positions. Recent graduate and Regions Bank recruiter John Mitchell said he believes anyone can be trained for the right job as long as they have a noted curiosity in the field.
“Someone who is intellectually curious and well put together [sticks out to me],” Mitchell said. “The quality of candidate[s] has been really great.”
Economics junior Andrew Asdel said this was his first time attending the career fair.. During the virtual portion of the career fair in the morning, Asdel said he spoke to nine separate recruiters with meetings set roughly 10 to 15 minutes apart. As a transfer student from Lone Star College-Cyfair in Cypress, Asdel said he was enthralled by the energy at the career fair around him.
“I kinda get in these scenarios and just roll with it,” Asdel said. “I did the Career Center, the mock interviews, the resume builders … I’ve been preparing.”
Alongside the excited undergraduate students, seasoned graduate students also stood in long lines for dream companies and gathered contact information. Finance graduate student Alec Randolph talked about researching companies and bringing career fair essentials — such as a notepad and business cards — in preparation for the event.
“[The career fair has] gone better than I thought it would,” Randolph said.
When asked about his post-fair plans, Randolph spoke of applying to everyone he spoke to within a short time frame. Next, he would be on the look out for interview callbacks.
“Talk to everyone. Keep a broad net,” Randolph said. “Never know what kinda connections you’ll build. Always network.”
Other than the two day event at Reed Arena and the virtual fair, the BSC hosts many other events to boost your resume and meet fellow business school students. To learn more about this career fair and BSC, visit https://www.maysbsc.com/.
