BYU Hosts First-Ever Silicon Slopes BYU Marriott MBA School Career Fair

PROVO, Utah – Nov 26, 2019 – More than three hundred students and nearly thirty companies participated in the first-ever Silicon Slopes BYU Marriott MBA Student Career Fair on 7 November 2019. Held in the Hinckley Alumni Center, the career fair gave students the opportunity to connect with top local companies and startups at BYU, a location attracting top tech and startup talent from across the nation. 

“For Silicon Slopes, companies seeking top talent to grow their businesses, this was a wonderful opportunity to meet many qualified candidates in one convenient location,” says MBA career management director Sam Dunn. “For MBA and business undergraduate students interested in living in Utah and working in the vibrant technology industry, the career fair was a great chance to showcase their skills.” 

Clint Betts, executive director of Silicon Slopes, also praised the successful joint event. “We were excited to team up with BYU Marriott’s MBA program for a career fair,” he says. “Happily, the event exceeded our expectations. It was a win-win—local companies found high-quality talent, and the students found internships and jobs with our growing and dynamic local companies.” 

The career fair focused on roles in marketing, finance, human resources, product management, analytics, and business development. The morning session was reserved for BYU MBA students, and in the afternoon, the fair opened up to BYU Marriott undergraduate students. 

Silicon Slopes, warmly nicknamed after the Silicon Valley in California, comprises the Wasatch Front region—the center of Utah’s startup and tech community. Silicon Slopes, a nonprofit organization, focuses on empowering Utah’s entrepreneurship field to advocate, connect with, and serve their community. As Utah’s startup and tech field continues to grow, the demand for talent grows as well. BYU Marriott students are prepped and ready to take on the challenge. 

Companies that attended this year’s fair included Ancestry, Vivint Smart Home, Podium, Lucid, and Weave. For students hoping to stay in the area, the joint career fair gave them exposure to top local companies. “Silicon Slopes’ firms need high-quality talent. BYU MBA students want to work for exciting and growing companies,” says MBA director Grant McQueen. “The career fair was a big hit. Feedback from recruiters and students was overwhelmingly positive.” 

Putting together the event would not have been possible without the student-led Kaizen team—a BYU internal consulting class. For second-year MBA students Chase Christensen from Farmington, Utah, Jonathan Fortuna from Gilbert, Arizona, and Jaron Thorley from Lindon, Utah, the event they helped plan, organize, and run created a strong base for future collaborations between Silicon Slopes and BYU Marriott.  

“While this inaugural joint career fair built awesome company-student connections and opened the door in many ways, we are extremely excited to see what this relationship can become in the years to come,” says Christensen. “BYU has wonderfully talented students—both undergrads and graduates—who are willing and able to contribute in meaningful ways.” 

BYU Marriott hopes to build off of the success of this year’s event for next year’s career fair. “I’m delighted with the success of the inaugural, co-branded Silicon Slopes–BYU MBA Career Fair,” says Dunn. “BYU Marriott looks forward to continuing this relationship in the future.”