This year's fair featured a total of 106 booths over two days, an increase from the 85 booths at last year's fair, according to acting Co-Director of Career Services Monica Wilson. Roughly 900 students attended the fair on Tuesday.
"The number of companies has fluctuated these past years," Wilson said. "We were down a little bit with students and employers last year because of the economy, but we're back up this year now, and expecting a great turnout."
Because of the College's remote location, several representatives choose not to attend the fair, Wilson added.
"I think employers have a harder time getting here," she said. "Since we're out of the way and not in the city, it's harder to bring employers to campus."
The fair is an opportunity for students to be exposed to diverse career options and explore employment possibilities that they may not have considered before, several students interviewed by The Dartmouth said.
"This is a great environment," Lynn Xie '11 said. "You get the opportunity to talk to people who represent firms that you didn't really think you were interested in before."
It was not just graduating seniors who attended the fair, however, as students from various class years used the opportunity to explore possibilities for internships and entry-level positions.
Stephanie Wolf '12 said she went to the fair to practice for future similar experiences.
"I'd like an engineering internship," Wolf said. "There's another fair specifically for engineering next week, and I came to look at this one to prepare myself for that."
In addition to consulting firms, which enjoy popularity every year, a wider variety of organizations made themselves accessible to students this year, Wilson said.
"Media, communications, marketing are ... having a resurgence, and there are some environmental-related opportunities as well," Wilson said. "We have a good mix, a mix of interest and a mix of employers."
Although Wilson was optimistic about the large variety of company representatives at the fair, several students interviewed said they had trouble finding companies that were not from the consulting and finance sectors
"I'm looking for something in entertainment," Andrew Citrin '11 said. "I came and decided to give the fair a shot, and some booths are more interesting than I expected, but so far I haven't found anything up my alley."
Upon leaving the fair, students said they felt a range of views about their future job prospects.
"I'm scared about the job market, the way the economy is now," Corrilo said. "It's so competitive, and there are people from so many colleges who are graduating now and who are interested in [consulting]."
Some students said they are more optimistic about the possibility of securing jobs after graduation.
"I think the market is getting stronger, and I'm not too worried," Hunter Cox '11 said. "It's good to do some meet-and-greet here, and to find information and resources that you might not already have."
Recruiting Dartmouth students tends to yield positive results for companies, Wilson said.
"Employers get a very good response rate from students here," Wilson said. "Of course it's up to them that students selected for interviews are matching qualifications, but rarely do we have an employer say, We didn't find the quality of candidate that we were looking for at Dartmouth.'"
