CareerFest '15 to feature more than 100 local and national companies

Apple and Google will attend UB's largest career fair for the first time, joining more than 100 local and national companies in recruiting UB students at CareerFest.

The 2015 event will be held from noon to 5 p.m. March 12 in the Main Gym in Alumni Arena on the UB North Campus. A list of all participating companies is posted on the fair mobile guide. CareerFest is open to UB students and alumni only.

“CareerFest ’15 will give UB students and alumni access to employers they would not otherwise have, and for all students, this is extremely valuable,” says Arlene Kaukus, director of UB Career Services. “Students who start career exploration early have the most success finding employment. CareerFest gives them a strong start in a rapidly changing world of work.

“UB Career Services is focused on preparing our students and alumni to meet these challenges, as well as securing top-level employers who want to recruit our students,” says Kaukus.

“We find that we meet students who have the background our company is looking for,” says Mark Bishop, a GEICO college recruiter for the Buffalo region. “Events such as this have been very successful for us at UB.”

For Gino Buzzelli, a 2014 UB computer science graduate, leveraging connections made at CareerFest led to securing a position as a program manager on the Visual Studio Online team at Microsoft.

“I met a Microsoft recruiter two years ago at CareerFest and received a lot of direct advice on improving my resume,” Buzzelli says. “I went back last year and applied to Microsoft as a software engineer. The company rep thought I was a better fit for program manager, which is a position sort of unique to Microsoft. I agreed and started with them in that job last August. It’s working out very well. None of this would have happened if I had not had the opportunity to talk directly to their company reps at CareerFest.”

Among the companies who will be represented at CareerFest ’15 are Apple Inc., Google Inc., Moog Inc., Roswell Park Cancer Institute and more than 100 others.

This year’s event offers the LinkedIn Photo Booth where students can have professional photos taken for LinkedIn accounts.

Additionally, CareerFest ‘15 will be improved through technology. A CareerFest app will help students and alumni prepare for and navigate the event. A live social media feed on the Jumbotron in Alumni Arena will capture the CareerFest experience.

For help with crafting effective résumés and preparing for job searches, Career Services is offering free express appointments from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.