Recruiting Recruiters at an HR Career Fair

PROVO, Utah – Mar 14, 2018 – Endless booths with unlimited job opportunities and a résumé in hand ready for recruiters—students can be prepared and qualified but still strike out at a career fair if companies are not in need of their particular skills and expertise.

To address this issue, leaders of BYU’s Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently organized and executed a career fair catered to students who desire to pursue a profession in HR.

“We wanted to make it special for HR students,” says Nichole Rohrbaugh, an HR senior from San Francisco who serves as the vice president of SHRM. “It’s tough going to career fairs where you’re not what companies are looking for. For this career fair, students go and know all these companies are here because they’re looking for employees in HR.”

Corina Cuevas, an HR senior from Chicago, is the vice president of BYU SHRM’s business networking and placement area where her role is to connect a number of companies to HR students and members of SHRM. She started the career fair last year with five companies; this year, she increased the number of companies to ten, including Bamboo HR, BetterBody Foods, dōTERRA, G&A Partners, Goldman Sachs, HealthEquity, IM Flash, NFP, Qualtrics, and Young Living all in attendance.

Cuevas and Rohrbaugh both graduate in April and have accepted full-time offers with Lockheed Martin and Amazon, respectively, so their motivation behind the event was to give back and provide students with the kind of opportunities they both have had through SHRM.

“There was a recruiter from Bamboo HR who got her job because of last year’s SHRM career fair,” Cuevas says. “So I know it’s benefiting students as far as getting placed and gaining experience.”

Leaders of SHRM said it was gratifying to see students fill the room and interact professionally with recruiters. While a majority of juniors and seniors are already placed, it was exciting to see sophomores and freshmen already taking advantage of these events and resources.

“We want younger talent to start developing themselves early,” Rohrbaugh says.

In the end, recruiters were impressed by the quality of students who attended the career fair. Cuevas had recruiters reach out to her via LinkedIn to express how much they enjoyed the event and students. 

Since becoming its own major, the HR program continues to gain momentum as students plan and implement events and activities that build awareness for the BYU Marriott HR brand. In addition to the career fair, SHRM hopes to have HR undergrad business visits in Dallas or San Francisco and more case competitions, as well as eventually host a national case competition.

While BYU Marriott has provided students with resources to organize events and practical skills to be successful professionally, the most powerful lesson Rohrbaugh learned was that students should not define themselves where they are now, but for what they have the potential to be.

“We’re here to be strategic leaders and not just students, then leave,” Rohrbaugh says. “This is our stepping-stone to become more, so we can give back to our communities and help our families.”