The Shepherd Union ballrooms transformed into a massive interview room on Wednesday evening. The ballrooms were filled with professional sales students and potential employers for a speed-interviewing event sponsored by the professional sales department at Weber State University.
The event is designed to allow seniors in the professional sales major at WSU to meet and speak with many different employers in a short amount of time. The seniors are given advice on how to dress and encouraged to bring enough copies of their resume to give to each employer.
Ranee Dearden, the administrative assistant in the department of professional sales, believes that the event is beneficial for more than just the students.
“It’s a great event,” Dearden said. “The event is beneficial to students and employers.”
According to Dearden, this is the third year that the event has been held. This event is held both in fall and spring semester and is offered only to seniors who will be graduating at the end of semester.
Steven Eichmeier, a professor in the department of professional sales and organizer of the event, says that this is an opportunity for students to look for potential job opportunities after they graduate.
“I’ve actually had students in other majors reach out to me and ask to attend this event,” Eichmeier said.
During the event, each student has three minutes to spend speaking with an employer. At the end of the three minutes, a bell rang out, which signaled the students to change seats and meet with a new employer.
“They brought in a lot of good companies this year,” said Glen Clarke, a senior in professional sales.
Kaleigh Patterson, a senior in professional sales who will graduate in December, said the night was great, and she enjoyed the whole process.
“It’s good to know what opportunities are out there,” Patterson said.
Lisa Southorn, a sales recruiter from Clearly Water Analytics, drove 4 1/2 hours from Boise, Idaho, to attend the event. Southorn wanted to attend that event last year but was unable to, due to scheduling issues.
“I found out about the event from an employee of mine who graduated from WSU,” Southorn said.
Southorn was glad she was able to attend the event this year and speak with students who are interested in sales as a career.
“I’ve never been in a room full of only students who are interested and have been prepped throughout the program for this job,” Southorn said. “I am hoping to find at least five or six students to set up a follow-up interview with.”
Desiree Larsen, a professor of professional sales, said the event has grown since it first began. The event this year had 50 employers and 48 students participating.
“We don’t have to reach out to employers as much as we used to,” Eichmeier said. “We now have employers that reach out to us and want to come to this event.”
Larsen says that, on average, the students who attend the event get anywhere from eight to 15 follow-up interviews from the different employers.
Bryce Cook, a senior in professional sales, said the event was a good chance to network and that a few companies told him that they will be reaching out to him.
“I think the department does a good job of providing job opportunities to students,” Cook said.
