A crowd of nearly 200 company representatives and as many as 500 students registered to put their best foot forward for the ODI Diversity Career Fair.
The career fair ran from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, October 17 at Ohio Stadium with a Diversity Networking Mixer at the Blackwell Hotel kicking things off in the morning with 33 companies.
Abby Kincaid, ODI's Career Services Specialist who runs the event, said the Career Fair is growing in popularity with companies who are seeking a pool of diverse talent. "The feedback we get from companies is that this is the best event of its kind," she said. "It's unique in that we start our marketing with ODI students before we open it up to the rest of Ohio State."
Kincaid said the pool of students attending has deepened with invitations extended to some students from other central Ohio colleges as well as Ohio State's regional campuses. "It's just another thing we're doing to make it bigger and better," she said. Another new wrinkle is that child care will be available so that parenting students can participate, according to Kincaid.
Tuesday's Career Fair came after a week of workshops that saw ODI students freshening their resumes, practicing their elevator speeches, and even trying out a few "Shark Tank"-style pitches while getting feedback from several of the participating companies. "It was really rewarding seeing students getting out of their comfort zones and giving those presentations," Kincaid said.
Kincaid said one former MSP graduate--Arhana Kolli--is returning this year as a corporate representative for IGS Energy after finding work at last year's fair. "She went from being a student attending the Career Fair to landing a fulltime job and is now back as a rep recruiting other ODI students," she said. "That's pretty cool."
The ODI Diversity Career Fair was sponsored by Aldi, Enterprise Holdings, and JM Smucker Company.