Employers welcome hundreds of in-person students, alumni jobseekers from CSU, BW, CWRU, JCU to the Student Center

After a furlough due to the ongoing pandemic, the annual Cleveland State University Career Fair returned in-person on Wednesday, March 2 in the CSU Student Center Atrium and the Glasscock Family Ballroom on the Center’s third floor. And it did so in spectacular fashion.

Sponsored by Avient, the fair was open to all current students and alumni of CSU, along with those from Baldwin-Wallace University, Case Western Reserve University and John Carroll University. Over 90 employers in all registered for the day-long event, many of them actively seeking potential employees and interns and (in a few instances) conducting on-site interviews.

“This is our first campus-wide career fair since 2019 and we are thrilled to bring employers back to campus and to get our students out in front of them,” said Brittany Wampler, director of CSU’s Office of Career Development and Exploration. Wampler’s office was responsible for the planning and implementation of the event, which had moderate foot traffic throughout the day.

Wampler said that breaking down the barriers that exist for students and alumni to “dial into work, graduate and professional opportunities” was a critical goal of the fair.

The event was a success: over 700 attendees registered in advance.

She expected that number to grow exponentially with “a steady stream of day-of arrivals,” describing the attendees as being a “very diverse mix of active job hunters from all disciplines,” with some curious student onlookers “who are doing some serious job market reconnaissance between their classes” and networking. 

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and not just from the many students in attendance, but from CSU President Harlan M. Sands as well. He marveled at diverse range of career opportunities and robust attendance, describing the fair as “a testament to the region, where everyone is ready to connect students with careers just like we are here at CSU.”

Sands drew parallels between the internship opportunities to the recent 2020 Engaged Learning Promise initiative at CSU, and made a point of connecting with employers and seekers alike.

“There is a great wealth of talent here on both sides of these tables,” Sands remarked. “These people are the engines that make this region run and we couldn’t be more excited to have them all together in one place.”

“Everyone can get something from this Fair—learning about how to interact and network, finding job opportunities and internships, even landing that first job,” Wampler added. “Education, government, non-profit, medical, finance, travel… all the fields are very well-represented here.”

The Career Fair’s website hub offered tips to attendees on preparing for the event, along with Zoom links to prep sessions and tips, a map of the fair and more. To that end, the formal business- and smart casual attire was as bountiful as the employers and potential employees who spent the day connecting to one another. 

Though the Career Fair is the spring flagship event for the Office of Career Development and Exploration, Wampler and her team are here for students every day, with career-minded programming, connections and all things job-related. Learn more by visiting their website.