Career Expo helps connect students to employers

Hundreds of people were in attendance to land a potential job at Southeast’s Career Expo held in the Student Recreation Center on March 1.

On hand for the event were over 130 employers including Drury Hotels, Red Letter Communications, SoutheastHEALTH and more.

Dan Presson, director of Career Services at Southeast and organizer for the event, said the expo went great and was one of the larger events his department had hosted.

Career Expo, hosted by Career Services each semester, is for Southeast students and alumni. Presson said 570 people attended Thursday's event. One of those attendees was Southeast senior Trista Clark, who went to the event to see what employers were present and what they had to offer her.

“I felt like the employers could have been more inviting and there could have been a wider range of careers covered there,” Clark said.

Pressons said some employers target the event at certain times due to the nature of their business.

“Different industries recruit in different semesters, so it just kind of depends,” Presson said.

Derek Atwood, a recruiter for Orgill, a hardlines distribution center in Sikeston, Missouri, was at the event looking for potential employees. This was Atwood’s first time at the event and said that he was surprised by the amount of people that attended.

Presson said they use LinkedIn marketing to recruit employers and for students they use emails, flyers for students.

At the expo, a LinkedIn room was made available for students and alumni to have a free professional profile picture taken for their LinkedIn account.

Professionalism was in full display as students were dressed in professional attire. Pressons said employers told him about the how they were impressed with student attire and how well prepared they were.

Presson said the event is an effective tool in helping students land jobs.

“We just found out that a company hired two fall graduate students from the Fall 2017 Career Expo,” Presson said.

For more information on Career Services, call (573) 651-2583 or visit Redhawkjobs.com.