Surrounded by tall banners displaying images of smiling employees operating heavy machinery and brightly colored corporate logos, hundreds of UConn students broke out their suit jackets and ties for Tuesday’s All-Majors Career Fair.
Among those students was fifth-semester computer science and engineering student Owen Lyders, who came to the fair looking for a summer 2027 internship in computer science.
“I’ve actually gone to the UConn student help center,” Lyders said. “I met with some advisors. I was practicing my interview skills. I had a lot of the resume builder tools that UConn supplied.”
The fair, which was put on by the UConn Center for Career Readiness, featured over 100 scheduled employers, many actively looking to fill job openings and internships.
Jon Wilcox, a regional vice president at flooring company Shaw Contract, said that he and his coworkers came to the fair looking to come away with multiple candidates for roles within Connecticut.
“In a perfect world, we’d walk out of here with two candidates to kind of fill those positions,” Wilcox said.
Taking over the third floor of the UConn Student Union, the fair flooded out of the Student Union Ballroom into rooms both across and down the hall. Some businesses, such as Lockheed Martin, brought displays multiple times larger than others.
A resume printing station, an area for students to store backpacks and a sensory room with dim lighting and noise restrictions were among the services offered.
Inside the different rooms, employers utilized a multitude of tactics to draw students’ attention, including plenty of free merch. The offerings included a seemingly infinite number of free pens and an abundance of miniature hand sanitizer dispensers.
While some companies gave away stress balls with their logo printed on the surface, other businesses got more elaborate with their foam creations. The more outlandish giveaways included foam tractors (Farm Credit East), pumpkins (Justice Resource Institute) and construction helmets (Herc Rentals).
There was also enough candy at the various tables to go trick-or-treating. Sherwin-Williams upped their presentation of sweets by filling one of their paint cans with Kit Kats and Reese’s.
Wilcox said that employers have to be assertive when trying to draw attention to their business.
“I think if you see somebody you think might be a good candidate, you have to be proactive and reach out to them and just grab them and introduce yourself real quick,” Wilcox
said. “Don’t let them come to you, you kinda gotta go to them.”
Though some students at the fair were upperclassmen looking to beef up their resume with an internship or secure a post-grad opportunity, Center for Career Readiness Senior Director Nancy Blimes said that the fair was also an opportunity for younger students to get their feet wet with talking to potential employers.
“We do encourage first year students to come,” Blimes said. “Even if they’re not ready to look for an internship, it’s great to come and just see what this is all about so the first time you come where you’re actually wanting to connect with employers isn’t your first time. It can be intimidating to be here.”
Blimes said that the fair usually sees between 1,500 and 1,800 student attendees. Even more students were invited to participate in Wednesday’s STEM Career Fair.
“It’s a great opportunity for students to come and try to make connections with employers,” Blimes said.