Tennessee Tech hosts record-breaking employer expo
Tech students interact with employers at the Center for Career Development’s employer
expo, held on Sept. 17.
More than 2,100 Golden Eagles descended on the Hooper Eblen Center this week for Tennessee
Tech University’s fall 2024 employer expo, hosted by the Center for Career Development.
The event set a new record for Tech career fairs, outpacing the previous attendance
record by nearly 500 students. As for employers, 187 of them showed up to recruit
Tech students for jobs and internships. Career Development staff even had a waiting
list of employers vying for limited space at the event.
The roster of companies and government agencies in attendance included names such
as Bridgestone Americas, Duracell, Eastman Chemical Company, Nissan, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, the Peace Corps, SAIC, the Tennessee Department of Treasury, the U.S.
Department of Energy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Whisper Aero and others.
“This was a great day,” said Russ Coughenour, director of the Center for Career Development
at Tech. “To be sold out with employers and have over 2,000 students in attendance
interacting with them – I’m not sure there is a better visual example of a university’s
success.”
For the first time, Tech freshmen made up the largest share of attendees – showing
students’ eagerness to get an early start on internship, co-op and career opportunities.
Coughenour also attributes the strong underclassman turnout to Career Development’s
“Gold Career Readiness” track, a freshman and sophomore program intended to help students
plot the right steps toward a successful career from their first days on campus. Many
Tech faculty implement the program as part of their course curricula.
Among the crowd of employers at the expo were Tech alumni such as Joze Lindquist,
a 2021 graduate now working as a computer engineer at the U.S. Army’s DEVCOM Aviation
& Missile Center.
“I was hired at a Tech career fair, and I wanted to come back and recruit students
like me,” Lindquist explained.
Likewise, Jim Porter, a 2001 Tech graduate now serving as an electrical engineer for
Tennessee Valley Authority, said he has seen firsthand the skills that Tech students
bring to TVA’s workforce.
“We have a strong internship program at TVA. We partner with Tech … I’ve got a few
great Tech students right now,” said Porter. “It essentially allows us to interview
these folks as they go through the program and then, when they graduate, we can try
to direct hire them and they already have some experience with TVA.”
Coughenour was even approached at the expo by a Tech alumnus who credited him with
helping polish up his resume while he was still a student.
“That’s one of the things for people in our business that keeps us motivated,” said
Coughenour. “You see students going out and being successful and then coming back,
representing their company and interacting with your currently enrolled students."
While many recruiters on hand at the event were seeking permanent employees, students
also had the opportunity to meet with people like Shirley Frierson, director of the
Tennessee Legislative Internship Program.
Frierson’s program offers internships with members of the Tennessee General Assembly
and includes a generous $500 weekly stipend.
“Today was absolutely amazing. It was a great opportunity for us to be here today
and get in front of Tech students,” said Frierson at the event. “We are interested
in all majors. We have 132 members of the Tennessee General Assembly, and they are
made up of all professions.”
As for Coughenour, he and his team, including assistant directors Sonja Higgenbotham
and Alex Callis and administrative associate Sharon Stevenson, are already looking
ahead to their next events.
The Center for Career Development will host several college-specific career fairs
in the spring, including for the School of Agriculture and the College of Education
& Human Sciences, as well as the annual Spring Engineering Fair, with dates to be
announced soon.
Tech’s Center for Career Development is located in room 328 of the Roaden University
Center. Learn more at www.tntech.edu/career.