The Career Development Office and Delta Sigma Pi hosted the Employment Agencies Information Fair from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Campus Square in Murray-Herrick Center.

Seventeen companies participated in the fair. The companies offer short-term contract jobs for the summer as well as full-time employment for graduating seniors.

Junior Matt Sullivan attended the job fair in search of a summer finance internship.

“Networking is always good, so I had a good time doing that,” Sullivan said.

He said he found the job fair helpful.

“[I] talked to some nice people, kind of all right around the college age,” Sullivan said. “They kind of know what the process is like and just offered some tips that way.”

Jake Schultz, a representative from Number Works/SALO, said, “a lot of firms will place permanently, but others will do temp-to-hire” at the job fair. He emphasized the benefits of temporary work for students.

“A lot of the time it basically is a good segue into coming out of this recession,” he said.

Although the job market has struggled in the past year, there were still job opportunities for students at the fair.

“Typically what we’ve seen actually for this first quarter of this year is a lot of long-term or contract-to-hire positions,” said Keshar Nadkarni, staffing consultant for Randstad. “Last year we were seeing really just strictly temporary positions, so [it’s] a good sign that the economy is turning around.”

Some employers prefer applicants with previous field experience.

“[The] majority of the positions that we work with are more individuals who [have] been out in the field for a couple years,” said Shawn Vang, recruiter for Top Career Solutions.

Other agencies offer employment ranging from entry level to executive positions.

At Randstad, field experience is not needed in order to be hired, Nadkarni said.

“Sometimes it’s challenging for a recent grad to have a lot of work experience on their résumé, so really what we like to see is if there’s any volunteer experience,” Nadkarni said. “Any type of longevity, so even if it’s some type of volunteer position, maybe it’s something you’ve been doing for a while.”

She added, “Primarily what it really comes down to for our clients is that someone wants to be there and they’re going to work hard.”

Rachel Britton can be reached at brit7192@stthomas.edu.