Engineering Career Services prepared students for the upcoming career fair Thursday with a One-Stop Career Fair Prep Event.

The event took place in the Student Innovation Center Thursday afternoon and offered a variety of services. The One-Stop Career Fair Prep Event included rapid resume checks, elevator pitch practice, CyHire Assistance, Career Fair advice, early registration and a camera set up to take professional photos.

Paige Wogahn, a senior double majoring in materials engineering and Spanish and a career fair director with the College of Engineering Career Services, was present, answering students’ questions about the career fair.

“I think one of the most utilized services was the rapid resume reviews,” Wogahn said. “So a member of the engineering career services staff would go over your resume with you, talk about everything from formatting to experiences, how you should list them and what should be on your resume.”

Besides the rapid resume reviews, Wogahn said many students used the elevator pitch practice station, where students could give their elevator pitches to an Engineering Career Service staff member, who would provide feedback and tips.

“Students should care about the career fair because it is a very good opportunity not only to get a job — whether that’s an internship or a full-time position — but also to practice new networking skills, and practice that professional environment that we’re all going to have to be a part of once we graduate,” Wogahn said.

Zach Janikowski, a freshman in mechanical engineering, was also present at the One-Stop Career Fair Prep Event, hoping to prepare for his first Career Fair at Iowa State.

“The resume check was very helpful, it kind of reassured me on stuff I’ve already put down,” Janikowski said. “Like it looks good, but then also like double checking things to make sure it sounds ready for a professional company to look over.”

Janikowski said having extra sets of eyes look over his resume helped him to narrow down what to include on a resume and how to keep it professional.

“I’ve also been to the elevator pitch table,” Janikowski said, “I don’t have an elevator pitch set up quite set up yet, so the cheat sheet they had for me was helpful. And the guy I was talking to, he gave me his elevator pitch, so that kind of gave me a quick rundown on what should be included.”

Ryan Cruz, a senior in mechanical engineering, attended the career fair prep event to refresh his interviewing readiness. Having already attended several career fairs during his time at Iowa State, Cruz was able to build off previous experiences interviewing and networking with professionals.

“I was able to practice my elevator speech, which was very helpful because it’s a lot nicer to practice it with another human being,” Cruz said. “You can always talk to the wall or a mirror, but it’s nice to get active feedback from a different person and have them not only bounce off and reciprocate from your own words and non-verbal communication but also just give you advice and information.”

Cruz said he received a lot of good feedback from his practice elevator pitch, including how to capitalize on his strengths and focus on practice in other areas.

“I think it’s a great event here at Iowa State,” Cruz said. “It’s awesome that we have such an awesome program and student community to create things like this to really help one another out. It shows that we have each other’s backs and we want to be there for each other.”

The College of Engineering Career Fair will take place from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 14 in the Scheman building.