The first of two career fairs for this school year took place in the Junker Center last Wednesday.

It was very evident just from walking around the Junker Center and looking at the list of companies that many were looking for engineering students, but Behrend is considered an engineering-heavy campus. However, there was a lot more planning that went into setting up the career fair than may show on the surface, and it is not strictly set up for engineering students.

Courtney Steding, Director of Career Services, plays a role in organizing the career fair and reaching out to companies. “We send invites out to all types of industries, both in Erie and on a national level,” Steding began. “Any company who employs students, we will contact them.”

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The career fair is a campus-wide event. Members of the Behrend track team helped with set up, as well as over 30 faculty and staff and 70 student volunteers.

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The career services team successfully recruited 183 companies for the career fair, with seven or eight companies on the waiting list.

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Behrend is highly recognized for the plastics program, and many plastics companies were at the career fair. Greg Murrer, 2014 Behrend graduate from the plastics engineering program, now works for Retal and represented his company at the career fair. “We are here because, I personally went through the plastics program and we are looking for people who we know have good knowledge in plastics engineering,” Murrer said.

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This is the largest career fair at Behrend to date, with companies looking for students to fill internship and full-time roles. The day after the career fair, last Friday, is when the team begins to plan for the next career fair that will take place during the upcoming Spring semester.

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The team is always looking for ways they can improve their services, although Steding states that Behrend has been praised by numerous companies for their customer service. From student feedback, the team is able to make changes based on recommendations from Behrend, Gannon, Mercyhurst and Edinboro students, who are all invited to attend. It is estimated that over 1,200 students between the four universities were in attendance.

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Freshman computer science student Ben Zukowski attended his first career fair this semester with hopes of getting a feel for how it works. “It’s nice that freshman have an opportunity so early to go and maybe get our names out there,” he stated.

The team also has taken step towards promotion for the career fairs. Aside from online advertising and flyers around campus, the team has also encouraged companies attending the career fair to advertise in the Beacon. Some companies have bought ads with hopes to strengthen their outreach.

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The next career fair at Behrend will be in the Spring, and the career services team hopes it will be even bigger than the one last week.