Employers and students braved the cold Tuesday on the Reitz Union Breezeway to talk about jobs.
This was the fourth year the UF Entrepreneurship Club hosted the Startup Job and Internship Fair and the first year it partnered with the Career Resource Center.
“We are trying to up everything this year,” Erick Rodriguez, the president of the club, said.
The CRC partnership allowed the club to draw in more employers and expand its outreach to students, said Rodriguez, a 20-year-old UF business management junior.
The event hosted about 25 employers and more than 300 students throughout the day, he said. In previous years, about 100 students met with 10 employers.
Neat Biz Solutions, a medical-consultation startup company in the UF Innovation Hub, has been one of the employers at the event before and is coming back. Tracy Jones, the office manager, said they are looking forward to it.
“It’s a great resource to come out and connect with students,” Jones said.
Employees who attended the event included Grooveshark, Mindtree, CollegeVox and Fracture, Inc. Larger companies, including Netflix, are scheduled for the next fair, Rodriguez said.
Startup companies are showing more interest in the fair because they are generally small companies that need extra workers, said Aniruddh Ravindran, executive vice president of the entrepreneurship club.
“Their mission is to build Gainesville as a popular workplace,” said Ravindran, a 22-year-old UF biomedical engineer second-year master student.
Earl Ziebarth, president and CEO of MyTime Schools, an app to manage high school sporting events, was the Student Body president in 1986. He said he wished the event was available when he was a student.
“It’s a great asset,” he said. “It’s nice being around sharp entrepreneurs and students.”
Philip Kubiszyn, a UF finance sophomore, said the fair created an optimistic atmosphere.
“Any opportunity is a great opportunity here at the university,” the 19-year-old said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 11/19/2014]
From right, Troy Halpin, a 20-year-old UF computer engineering sophomore meets Mindtree’s talent coordinator Rob Stolle, 28, at the Startup Job and Internship Fair on Tuesday afternoon.
