Undergrads Connect with 127 Employers

PepsiCo, Under Armour and the Big Four accounting firms joined newcomers like Comcast NBCUniversal and M&T Bank at the fall 2019 Undergraduate Career Fair hosted by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Overall, 127 employers from all sectors and industries connected with more than 1,200 Maryland Smith students on Sept. 20, 2019, at the Xfinity Center in College Park, Md.

“The career fair can be really intimidating,” said Smith senior David Rosenstein, a marketing major who attended his first employer event as a freshman in 2015. “Fortunately, one of the best pieces of advice that I ever got from the Office of Career Services is to start early, so by the time you’re a junior or senior and the recruiters want you, you’ve already gotten your jitters out.”

Rosenstein said the Office of Career Services also holds networking events and resume reviews, so students can hone their job search skills. “By the time we come back to the career fair, we are ready to chat and have the conversations that employers want to have with us,” he said. “We know the drill.”

Rosenstein’s own preparation paid off with a summer 2019 internship at LinkedIn. After his graduation in spring 2020, he will start full-time at the Silicon Valley giant. “I couldn’t have gotten it without Maryland Smith and the Office of Career Services,” he said.

One new feature in fall 2019 was an expanded partnership with talent acquisition software firm Yello. Instead of filling out the same information at each booth, students created easily shareable profiles within Yello.

“Employers get great data about each student, and the lines move faster because students don’t have to input the same information over and over again,” said Ashlee Chicoine, director of undergraduate career programming.