Students and alumni filled the Pennington Student Activity Center in hopes of finding long-term employment opportunities at Career Fair 2013.
 The fair took place on Thursday, Sept. 19 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 and according to Ken Ridgedell, director of career services, the turnout did not disappoint
“I think last year, it seemed like we would have a group of students come, there would be a lull, but I’m seeing a much more consistent flow of students that are coming out, coming in throughout the morning, which is very positive,” said Ridgedell. “I’ve had some employers already indicate to me, some of the employers that come year after year, that have said they felt like there has been a much more consistent flow of traffic, students and alumni.”
Those who attended looked upon the experience as a favorable one. It was a valuable opportunity for students and alumni to scout out potential employers for internships or full time jobs.
“I love the fact that the school does this. It’s not common to every university to really push for their alumni and students to be able to get a career out of college, even though that would seem to be the purpose of going to school,” said Sarah Stickley, a first-year graduate student in Psychology. “And I really like it. It’s a huge event, and I’m super excited to be here, mainly because they have the Tulane University Primate Lab that I want to work with…. I feel like it’s mostly geared towards business and accounting majors and, like, computer science, but there’s some things for me, and I’m a psychology graduate student,” said Stickley.
However, even students who did not find employers hiring for their specific major found that many of the organizations were aiming to hire from any major.
“I just got an interview appointment working for a marketing firm, which is really cool,” said Brennan Borison, a junior in management. “I find a lot of the people representing companies are open to multiple majors and are not just looking for one major in particular. They’re really open, and I find that encouraging.”
Ridgedell was pleased with the turnout of this year’s fair and stressed how important student attendance is to the Career Fair.
“As director of the office, I’ve been very concerned about having students and alumni take the time out of their day to attend this event because when we bring we bring 145 to 150 of these employers here,” said Ridgedell.  “They’re expecting to be able to engage with students and talk to them about job and career opportunities. And if we can’t keep our numbers coming, we can’t increase our attendance, then my concern as director of the office is that some of these employers will choose not to come in the future.”