By Katelynn Liedtke

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University’s Campus Recreation Center was buzzing with hundreds of eager students recently as they explored the opportunities laid out before them at the annual Big Career Fair, with dozens of employers filling the center’s gymnasium to meet potential job candidates. 

The Sept. 24 event, hosted by MTSU’s Career Development Center, is a universitywide, all-majors opportunity available to students and MTSU alumni. Employers in attendance ranged from restaurants and construction companies to graduate program recruiters, government agencies and more. The event has been held for over 20 years, but last year’s event set a record for attendance with 2,100 students. 

“We have 170 employers and graduate recruiters. We have folks that are representing full-time positions, internships and then we have program representatives, or recruiters, from various academic programs for graduate school,” said Jennie Bryan, assistant director for the Career Development Center, adding that MTSU was joined by several other universities, including Vanderbilt, Lipscomb and Lincoln Memorial, to name a few.

One of the companies in attendance was the popular e-commerce behemoth, Amazon, which operates a fulfillment center on Joe B. Jackson Parkway in Murfreesboro. Kyle Bernet, a general manager and 15-year veteran of the company, said their goal is to speak with students about one of three fulfillment roles.

“It’s either going to be within our first mile, middle mile, or last mile. So, fulfillment, sortation, and delivery. So, operations roles for area manager roles, which is like our entry-level operations role,” said Bernet. “And then we also have HR partners, which is an entry-level HR role, and then warehouse safety specialist, which would be our entry-level safety role. All three of those roles can be found in all three of our business lines within operations.”

Bernet said they were looking for individuals interested in their college internship or new-hire programs. He said Amazon hires from a wide variety of majors and also looks at industrial and systems engineering majors. 

Another company in attendance was PepsiCo, located in Cookeville, Tenn. Well known for its Pepsi and Frito-Layproducts, PepsiCo drew a large crowd of students with its brightly colored chips display, enticing them with free bags of its newer chip flavors, giving the company a chance to talk about its employment opportunities.

PepsiCo sales director Dustin Richardson said they were looking for summer interns for next summer and full-time sales positions. 

“As far as requirements, degrees can vary. Anything from just standard business administration and marketing, but we are also looking for individuals who are good communicators, well organized, and self-starters,” said Richardson. 

“This is about my fifth time coming back for a career fair over the last five years. Today looks like a great turnout. I see a lot of great employers. So far, all of the students who have approached the booth have been really engaged and mostly prepared. You can tell some of them are nervous, which is understandable.” 

For MTSU finance major Brandon Cook, the career fair is a great place to seek out internship and networking opportunities. After browsing the booths at the fair, Cook was able to make connections to companies such as Northwestern Mutual and Auto-Owners Insurance. Cook said the connections made with these companies are ones he intends to follow up on. 

“Auto-Owners for sure, because there’s an internship opportunity there. Northwestern Mutual, because I have a good relationship with them,” said Cook. 

The Big Career Fair is designed to get students face-to-face with companies.

“We really want to help students find their next step,” said Bryan. “We encourage our students to come early in their matriculation. So, freshmen might just have arrived on campus, but this sort of environment helps them figure out which employers they might be interested in and whether they might want to pursue graduate school. It’s really helping them with career exploration along the way.” 

The Big Career Fair is not the only way the Career Development Center is striving for student success. Bryan said the center also offers professional attire through the Career Closet, which provides students with free clothing they can wear to career fairs, interviews and conferences. 

Bryan said clothes from the closet are mostly donated by the community, as well as staff and faculty. Sometimes an employer will donate funds to the Career Development Center for them to purchase new items. Students can receive one full outfit per semester, including shoes, accessories, ties, blazers and dresses. 

“I think that our students need to know they are going to be supported, not only by their faculty that they are in class with, but also by our staff and the Career Development Center and around the campus,” Bryan said.

The Career Closet is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Keathley University Center in room 328. 

Journalism major Katelynn Liedtke is a practicum student in the Office of News and Media Relations. Reach her at [email protected].