On Sept. 29 Career Fair was held in the REC Center on campus. According to Craig Marinello, manager of student employment and internship development, 162 employers and around 1000 students were in attendance. 

With this being an in-person event, the freshmen who joined SLU in 2020 are seeing Career Fair in its entirety for the first time. 

“Being that it is the first live event that we have had since 2019 and we had as many employers and students this year, I’d say it was extremely successful,” Marinello said. 

There were jobs for any and all majors. Sydney Hemphill, a senior integrative biology major, may have found a job with Naval Oceanographic at the Career Fair. 

“In the naval office in general, they have multiple departments that do what I want to do which is where they send stuff out to the bottom of the ocean and have different collection samples to figure out what sediment is down there, what creatures, etc.,” Hemphill said.  

She said they would pay for her schooling and guarantee her a job with the department of defense after graduating. 

Hemphill said, “I told them I wanted to know what was at the bottom of the ocean and they said I was perfect. Right now, this is where my heart is.”

Jobs were not the only thing offered at Career Fair, there were also free professional headshots for LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a large professional network on the internet that can use to find the right job/internship, connect and strengthen professional relationships, and learn the skills you need to succeed in your career.

Any student who took a headshot will receive one photo. Career Services will send an email out to students who got their photo taken around Oct. 17, but if one does not receive an email then they should email them at [email protected].

Some businesses and organizations are making a return to the Career Fair after appearing in prior years. 

Amy Verberne, CPA Partner at Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC said it was their fifteenth year of being a part of the Career Fair. According to Verberne, CRI typically had a success rate of hires from SLU specifically in their Mandeville office. 

Another returning visitor of ten years is Bernhard. Chantel Laporte, a senior corporate recruiter from Bernhard, said they are local with an office in Metairie, but also have offices all over the U.S.

“We have a big drafting department, so we hire a lot of entry-level drafters. Our entry-level project managers are assistant project managers and assistant project managers are able to progress into higher positions over time,” Laporte said. 

In addition to businesses, LSU’s Law Center attended. 

Jake Henry III from LSU Law Center said, “We are not looking for hires, but we are looking for folks who are interested in going to law school and I do think some students from Southeastern will eventually come to LSU for this program. There are four law schools in the state and we are one of them.”

This year’s Career Fair was definitely one for the books. 

“We were really excited about the number of students who came out and thankful for the feedback- it has been excellent,” Marinello said.