A new location and persistent rain didn’t dampen the determination of engineering students seeking future employment at the College of Engineering Career Fair on Tuesday.

On their way to the white tents outside the Scheman Building, students did what they could to protect themselves from the downpour. Umbrellas were hidden, protective layers of clothing were removed, some women unrolled the bottoms of their dress pants and a few men attempted to dry their hair — at least to the point where it wasn’t dripping onto their faces.

Students like Julia Baray, senior in chemical engineering, were planning to attend the career fair rain or shine, with the intent of landing a job. She thoroughly prepared before coming to the career fair, which featured 211 employers.

“First I looked at all of the companies that were coming and decided which ones I wanted to talk to and made sure that I knew a little bit about them so that I had some common ground to start talking to them,” Baray said. “I also prepared my resume to give to employers.”

Most found few differences between the tents used this year and inside Hilton Coliseum, aside from having difficulty hearing caused by rain falling on the tents.

The new location provided plenty of space, and while it left some like Mimi Kelly, recruiter for Businessolver, a little damp, it allowed employers to attend and pursue ISU students.

“I’ve been very pleased with Iowa State’s student turnout,” Kelly said. “Students seem to get more prepared every year. I feel like a lot of students, this year especially, have done research on us, they know who they want to talk to, they know kind of what we do, what majors we’re looking for — they really seem to be better prepared than they have in previous years.”

This was Businessolver’s third year attending the College of Engineering’s career fair. Kelly said it’s the ISU graduates they currently employ and interns they’ve had that keeps the business coming back.

Businessolver is a unique company, in that it has grown by approximately 30 percent every year for the past seven years, Kelly said. This allows her to attend career fairs in search of interns, full-time, part-time and seasonal employees to fill the many openings the company has.

“I know we are very fortunate to say that we’ve been growing and a lot of people, even a lot of students walking by, have said that a lot of places or booths don’t have positions available and they’re glad that we do,” Kelly said.

The turnout at the career fair Tuesday indicated that the chance to land a dream job at one of the nation’s top companies took precedent over keeping dry for engineering students.