Students met with employers, handed out their resumes and discussed career and internship opportunities at last week’s annual Career and Job Fair.

From a total of 518 students who attended the event, 402 of them are from the Mercyhurst main campus, according to Executive Director of Experiential Learning Kyle Foust, Ph.D.

This is an 11 percent increase over the number of students from Mercyhurst who attended last year’s career fair.

“We are very pleased with that,” Foust said.

Many students who attended the fair found it to be a helpful and positive experience.

“I think it’s going great,” graduate student Jimmy Strand said. “I think they have a great selection of companies, they certainly tried to cover all their majors, and I think the school has done a good job of letting the students know about the fair.”

Senior Kelton Macke went to the fair looking for a local internship.

“It’s been very helpful actually,” she said.

Out of the 74 companies that were present, senior accounting and finance major Tyler Rowley said he couldn’t find any that appealed to him.

“No one has anything to offer in my major,” he said.

In order to cater to students who are undeclared, Academic Support from Mercyhurst was present at the fair. Retention Specialist from the Student Academic Support Office Justin Ross said the office was there because the fair was a great opportunity for undeclared students.

He said the career fair was helpful for students to connect employers with skills they would need for the future. This could then help them decide on a major.

Ross said he was pleased with the number of undeclared students who attended the fair.

“We had a great turnout,” Ross said. “I wish all of them would show up.”

The employers at the event told Foust the students were qualified and presented themselves well. The employers’ comments show that Mercyhurst has properly prepared its students, Foust said.

Foust is working on surveying the representatives who came to the fair as well as students who attended in order to get feedback about the Career Fair.