by Alyson Rimsha
Daily Lobo
UNM hosted the biggest career fair in campus history on Thursday, according to the director of Career Services.
The career fair brought 109 employers to the SUB to meet prospective students.
Leslye Ellison, Career Services director, said 109 of the 111 companies that registered for the fair this year showed up.
She said past events have each brought in about 80 employers.
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While the previous career fairs each attracted about 1,100 students, this one surmounted the average with 1,600 attendees.
Brad Johnston, a junior at UNM, said the number of employers at the fair was surprising.
"I'm glad to see so many big corporations here," Johnston said.
Employers spanned the spectrum from The Buckle, a clothing retailer, to PNM.
Ellison said the fair was directed at all levels of UNM students.
"Possibilities range from internships for freshmen to jobs for graduate students," she said.
Career Services has been building an employer database for the last four years that has grown to include more than 4,000 organizations, Ellison said.
Ellison said she began planning Thursday's event a year ago. According to Ellison, UNM has six career fairs each year.
Students select the companies through on-campus requests, she said.
Ellison said fliers and advertisements were displayed around campus to spread the word about the fair.
"We put an ad in the Lobo and announced it on KUNM along with making announcements in classes and having a booth in the SUB," Ellison said.
Elaine Stover, associate director of career services at Arizona State University, said ASU had 16 career fairs last year, some lasting as long as four days.
Attendance varies, she said, sometimes reaching 4,000. Stover said the fairs are directed at a wide range of students and bring in a variety of employers. The number of booths ranges from 17 to 183.
According to the University of Colorado-Boulder's Career Services Center, CU has six career fairs per year on campus. One is a two-day fair targeting all students and majors.
Sometimes as many as 2,400 students attend the CU fairs.
Lil Drye, Univision Radio marketing director, said this is the first time the company has attended a UNM career fair. She said the event was productive.
D.J. Fulton, a senior at UNM, said the career fair resulted in job opportunities for him.
"I already have interviews," he said.
Outside the SUB ballroom, student organization Defend Democracy handed out fliers opposing corporations during the fair.
The UNM Police Department was called to question the group's authority to distribute the fliers inside the SUB. No reports were filed, and the group was allowed to continue passing out information.
