Business School Career Fair draws huge crowd
A huge crowd turns out for the Career Fair held by the CU Denver Business School. (Photos: Tyghe Boone-Worthman, marketing coordinator)
Bryant Burciaga, dressed in a crisp suit and carrying his resume, shook hands with many potential employers at the hugely successful Career Fair hosted by the University of Colorado Denver Business School.
"There's a lot of good opportunities here for internships and for people who are close to graduating," he said. An undergraduate studying marketing and management, Burciaga was mostly looking for internships -- and he found plenty.
About 200 students and 35 employers participated in the Nov. 14 Career Fair in the First Floor Lobby of the Business School.
The four-part Finance, Risk Management and Insurance Career Series was developed to include a 90-minute Career Boot Camp on resume and LinkedIn profile development, business networking, Career Fair strategies and professional etiquette; one-on-one sessions with each participant to polish and complete resumes and LinkedIn profiles; an invitation-only leadership dinner; and the Career Fair.
All CU Denver Business School students were invited to attend the Career Fair, but the 58 Career Series participants had an advantage. They received training on how to maximize their Career Fair experience, had their resumes packaged and presented to the Career Fair companies before the event in an electronic resume book and at the event in a hard copy resume book.
Sue Wyman, director of the Business School's Graduate Career Connections, said, "Our students represent our brand, so how they show to employers is important."
They showed very well, according to the employers who lined the lobby with booths and recruiters.
"This is great. We've gotten some great candidates," said Emily Copeland, who works in human resources for CoBank. CoBank offered both internship and credit analyst training programs for students.
"CoBank already has a lot of strong ties here (to the Business School), and we want to deepen our roots and let students know about our opportunities," Copeland said.
Copeland, who earned her MBA from CU Denver in 2000, said the Business School mirrors real-world work environments. "The huge advantage was being able to integrate everything I was learning into my work," she said.
Likewise impressed by the quality of CU Denver candidates was Lisa Roberts, banking officer with FirstBank. She said FirstBank offers a management training program and is looking for students with all varieties of business degrees. "This is a great opportunity to meet the students and tell them about FirstBank," Roberts said. "Lately, we've had large hiring classes, and we offer internships, too."
The success of the Career Fair, and the Finance, Risk Management and Insurance Career Series that led up to it, means that both graduate and undergraduate students can expect the Business School to host similar fairs and series -- in other business specialty areas -- in the future.
That's good news to Burciaga. "I definitely hope that the Business School does more of these Career Fairs," he said.
Partnering employers who participated in the Career Fair also included: Arrow, DaVita, JBS S.A., Hull and Company, CenturyLink, Aleutian Consulting, Fidelity Investments, Five Rings Financial, FTI Consulting, Oppenheimer Funds, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Perella Weinberg Partners, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo Advisors, Wells Fargo Bank, Auto Owners Insurance, Cherry Creek Insurance Group, Chubb Group, Flood and Peterson, HUB International, IMA Financial Group, ISU, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Lockton Insurance, MassMutual Colorado, Moody's Insurance, Nationwide Insurance, Northwestern Mutual, Philadelphia Insurance, Wave Financial Partners and Willis. The fair and series was sponsored by MassMutual Colorado, while the Career Dinner was co-sponsored by Cherry Creek Insurance and CNA.