About 100 MTSU Concrete Industry Management students were part of an annual fall networking event with 30 national concrete concerns Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Cantrell Hall of the Tom H. Jackson Building on campus.

Companies came from as far as Denver, Colorado, Orlando, Florida, Ohio and other states in search of potential employees from MTSU, which has one of the oldest and most outstanding concrete industry programs in the nation.

MTSU junior Cranston Gentry, left, a Concrete Industry Management production, sales and service major, jokes with Chris West, director of operations improvement for Irving, Texas-based Lehigh Hanson as Corey McBurnett, national campus recruiter in North America for Lehigh Hanson, reviews Gentry’s resume. The trio was part of the MTSU CIM program’s annual fall networking event in Cantrell Hall of the Tom H. Jackson Building Oct. 21. (MTSU photos by Randy Weiler)

From a CIM recruiting fact sheet related to jobs from fall 2014 to spring 2015:

• 306 positions available, with 257 full-time career jobs and 49 part-time jobs or internships.
• 44 employers visited campus to recruit.
• 9.1 jobs per graduate.

Salary-wise, from fall 2012 to spring 2015 for 55 graduating seniors, the average starting pay was more than $45,000. Twenty-five grads landed jobs in Tennessee with a starting salary of nearly $41,000. Thirty grads headed out of state, where the average starting pay was $49,000.

More than 60 percent of the 140 CIM graduates between fall 2012 and spring 2014 were hired by the time they graduated.

Nearly 90 percent obtained jobs within three months of graduating.

CIM Chair Heather Brown and her staff coordinated the event.

CIM is one of 11 departments in the College of Basic and Applied Sciences.

For more information, visit www.mtsu.edu/programs/concrete-industry or call 615 -904-8599.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)

Jerry Larson, left, of Zionsville, Ind., executive director of the Indiana Ready Mixed Concrete Association, explains aspects of the organization to MTSU Concrete Industry Management Chair Heather Brown, sophomore Jaclyn Streeter, 19, of Buford, Ga., and freshman Reagan Brown, 18, of Chickamauga, Ga., Oct. 21 during CIM’s fall networking event. Thirty national concrete-related companies met 100 MTSU CIM majors who are seeking future employment.