Career Development Center Hosts Information Technology Career Fair

By Mollie Adcock

Raider Shakedown Reporter

            MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- The Career Development Center hosted its first-ever “IT Connect Fair” on Nov. 14 at the Tom Jackson Building for Middle Tennessee State University students hoping to start a career in the Information Technology field.

            From 4 p.m. until 5:30 p.m., the CDC planned to host a career fair for employers and students of the IT profession to connect and network. The event was open and free to all MTSU students and alumni. Fourteen employers, MTSU’s graduate program, and the group Association of IT Professional had tables set up all around the perimeters of MTSU’s Tom Jackson Building as seven of the Career Center’s staff signed in approximately 114 students at the door. While the event was planned to end at 5:30 p.m., employers and students didn’t begin leaving until 6 p.m., a positive sign, according to the Center’s staff.

            CDC Assistant Director Dusty Doddridge had set a goal of 12 employers and 100 students to attend the event. Not only was that goal surpassed, but the event also received positive feedback from employers who attended.

            “Employers indicated that they had 20 to 30 viable candidates for jobs,” Doddridge said. “And one employer even said it was the best career fair they had ever attended.”

            The Career Development Center works year-round to make sure students and alumni are prepared for life after college. For years, this has included a general fall career fair open to all majors and careers. However, Doddridge began to notice an increase in the volume of IT postings their online job database Lightning JobSource was receiving and saw an opportunity to put together a networking event with these employers and the large amount of students in the IT field.

            Terry Murphy of Deloitte Services was in attendance at the fair with two of his co-workers, Rob Colburn and Diane Easter, who were all seeking different things from the fair. While Easter was trying to find summer interns, Murphy said his goal of the evening was to “make and establish better connections,” and see how interested students were in the company’s potential IT positions.

            Attending a career fair can be nerve-racking for students. Many of the students who came into Tom Jackson looked overwhelmed and weren’t sure where to start. Other students clutched their resumes tight to their bodies and didn’t stray away from the free-food table in the center of the room. According Easter, all a student has to do to have a successful career fair experience is “walk up, introduce yourself, and talk -- show me you’re ready to make an impression on the world.”

             It was the students who understood this who appeared to have the most beneficial time at the "IT Connect Fair". According to Doddridge, employers said that because of the students who did manage to stray away from the snack table and talk with employers, many of the IT departments found applicable candidates for positions at their companies.

            “The message we’re trying to send out to students is that career fairs serve multiple purposes,” Doddridge said. “[Students can] get information, find out more about their career path in an industry for long-term positions, work on their interview skills, and learn more about employer needs. Career fairs provide a learning outcome of what the actual job market needs from students and graduates.”

            For more information about the Career Development Center, visit www.mtsu.edu/career.

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