COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - 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 expo.
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 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, 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.
