The spring engineering career fair may set new records again this year, as the number of attending companies and students is expected to break 2014’s record with the addition of a second day.
Registered company attendance is 50 percent greater than last year, and student-company interviews will now be offered throughout Reed Arena’s concourse area. Student Engineers’ Council — the organization responsible for engineering’s semesterly career fairs — decided to make the jump from a one-day to two-day spring career fair on Tuesday and Wednesday to accommodate a greater number of engineering firms.
Melinda McClure, SEC president, said when company registration numbers exceeded their expectations in Spring 2014, they decided to make the Spring 2015 career fair in Reed Arena a two-day event.
“It truly sets a precedent to have two two-day career fairs in one year,” McClure said. “It attests to the quality of our engineers.”
McClure said while registration for the two­-day Spring Fair was expected to fill quickly, company registration did not sell out. Still, 200 more booths in Reed Arena will be filled with recruiters, a more-than-50 percent increase from last year’s spring fair, setting the total number of booths at a record-breaking 504.
“The prime time for recruitment is typically in the fall,” McClure said. “So companies just aren’t used to doing major recruitment in the spring. Still, I have no doubt that we will have it filled in the future.”
Michelle Wise, SEC career fair co-chair, said in addition to an increase in the number of companies attending the fair, many of the companies have registered to attend for the full two days to maximize facetime with the students.
“Because we have more booths available this year, we have also seen a rise in first-time attendees,” Wise said. “Many of these new companies have become interested in attending as a result of hearing about the highly regarded reputation of A&M students and the hiring successes of companies that went to the career fair previously.”
To make up for the extra space that was planned for spring fair, the SEC teamed up with the Career Center to utilize the space for company representatives to conduct interviews with the students.
“The second day of fair, we will have the entire upper concourse of Reed Arena used for interviews,” McClure said. “That way, companies can get those done while they’re on campus and be more encouraged to hire students.”
Ervin Polasek, SEC vice president of development, said SEC leaders planned ahead to make sure any extra space from the career fair’s expansion would be utilized.
“We had a few options for the consequences of not filling up both days,” Polasek said. “So about two and a half weeks ago we made the decision to contact the Career Center. I let them know what our idea was about having interviews, and sure enough, they agreed. They kind of took the reins on planning the whole thing.”
The engineering career fair will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in Reed Arena.