Beta Alpha Psi brings recruiters to the recruits
A line stretched far outside the Bovee University Center marking the location of "Meet the Recruiters Night" on Thursday in the Rotunda Room.
The annual event was a chance for students to network with national recruiters who offer internships and professional, entry-level job opportunities to majors or minors in accounting, finance, information systems and related areas. Beta Alpha Psi, an accounting honors society open to finance and information systems students, sponsor the event each year.
"Its a great opportunity just because there are so many firms here," said Troy senior Christian Conley, president of Beta Alpha Psi. "You and come out here and you have a great opportunity to get a job or internship."
More than 130 recruiters were in attendance. Booths from major players in industries like Dow Corning, Ford, General Motors and Hewlett Packard met students.
Accounting professor Tom Weirich said many of the recruiters are alumni who have moved up in the industry and returned to Central Michigan University seeking qualified candidates.
Manager of Information Technology for Ford, Jennifer Raybourne, is a CMU alumna. Her whole team returned to CMU because of their pride for the university and the College of Business Administration.
"Ford does a strict evaluation of colleges that are available for recruiting and I think (CMU's selection) is because of the quality of the programs and a little bit of the culture of the student body and how that fits with the Ford Motor Company," Raybourne said.
Ford was looking to meet students who want to pursue a career in Information Technology, who are skilled in one degree, but also have the potential to adapt.
CMU is strong in information technology fields, due to being a state leader in SAP accreditation.
In the fall of 2014, CMU began its 18th year as a member of the SAP University Alliance Program. Since 1998, CMU has offered undergraduate and graduate courses supported by the SAP software.
To date, over 10,200 CMU students have participated in business courses supported by SAP.
Ford and GM in particular are hiring a large number of SAP accredited students. In Sept. the company declared the university a "Premier University" for recruiting information systems and information technology students.
This makes CMU one of the Top 20 universities in the nation to recruit these majors.
