The Business, Industry and Technology Career Fair was Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum. Over 150 employers were there to present their companies to students who attended the event. This event provides opportunities for students to explore many different post-education paths and gives employers opportunities to find new talent for their companies.
Hailie Lenz, a junior in finance, wanted to network with employers despite already having an internship.
“I currently have an internship with the Iowa DOT, but I think there’s about 200 companies here today, so I think it’d be really interesting to grow my network and see what other opportunities there are for me,” Lenz said. “[I’m] hoping to score an internship and make some connections I could possibly use when I graduate next year for a full-time job after graduation.”
Lenz also is interested in risk management and one of the booths she checked out was Casey’s because she was interested in their risk management internship.
“My friend works in claims at the DOT, and she says it’s honestly really interesting and every day doesn’t look the same, so I think it’d be kind of interesting to find some internship that kind of relates to that,” Lenz said.
Lenz also said that the event is “a little overwhelming,” but appreciates the preparation she was given in advance by staff members.
“The Ivy staff have prepared me pretty well, and my advisor has given me some advice… and the employers are always great to talk to,” Lenz said. “They’re not scary at all, and you always leave learning some really good advice or something that you can use in the future.”
Gabriel Wright, a senior in management information systems and minoring in data science, brought notes with him to the career fair.
“I usually try to find employers that are already interested in my major and then also already have positions,” Wright said. “I feel like I fit the criteria pretty well, so I try to prepare myself and then ask questions a little bit more just to get a little bit more information and communication with them.”
He also commended the university and showed appreciation for his career advisor.
“ISU always does a really good job,” Wright said. “It’s always very well organized. I get a lot of help from my career advisor; they always do a really good job of supporting me and then also try to give me advice when I need it.”
Sarah Phillips, a first-year in political science, says that despite her major not being in business, she still wanted to make connections.
“Political science is a type of major where it’s kind of all about connections,” Phillips said. “You come to these places, and even though I don’t want a business internship, it’s all about connections.”
Furthermore, she also mentioned the event is good for students who haven’t put themselves out there that much.
“I think this is good experience for a lot of people because I’ve had experiences coming in and selling yourself and putting yourself out there, but I don’t think a lot of kids have, so coming here gives them a really good opportunity even if they’re not looking for a job or looking for an internship like me,” Phillips said.
Laura Robertson, a talent acquisition partner at Werner Enterprises, said they were looking for summer interns at the career fair.
“Looking anywhere from information technology interns to operations management, customer management, sales, marketing, so we’re looking to fill that internship program, but we are also looking for full-time opportunities,” Robertson said. “We have management trainee programs for December graduates as well as May graduates.”
Emma Schuler, a talent acquisition coordinator under human resources, Chloe Jaeger, a performance improvement specialist under quality management and Jessica Ormsby, the contract staff and student coordinator under human resources, represented Mary Greeley Medical Center (MGMC) at the career fair. Despite being a hospital, they wanted to showcase their non-medical professions.
“We are a hospital of course, however about 30% of our employees work in non-clinical areas, so they are not working with patients,” Schuler said. “That could be anything from accounting, supply chain, human resources like myself, quality improvement [etc.], so there’s lots of different areas on the non-clinical side, and that’s what we are here for: to recruit for our internships in that area.”
Additionally, Schuler, Jaeger and Ormsby expressed that students can be in healthcare without being in a clinical setting.
“There’s so many different things that students can go into related to the healthcare setting that’s non-clinical, so I think there’s a lot of opportunity for students to get exactly what they’re looking for out of an internship,” Jaeger said.
Grant Doyle and Trent Harlow of 3M were looking for “seniors in supply chain management for a production planning analyst role” and said they were successful.
They also said they had initiated a strategy to get people to apply.
“We talk about our culture at 3M, we talk about our innovation, and we’re a global company that once you get your foot in the door, you can really take your career and do anything that you’d want,” Doyle said.
Doyle also liked attending the event as an employee because he is an Iowa State Alum.
“As an [alum], I think it’s fun to be on the other side of the table,” Doyle said. “I know what the students are going through, that stress level, so trying to put them at ease and making it [as much of a] comfortable process for them as possible.”
