Victoria McKenzie/ Winonan

As spring semester begins, seniors begin after-graduation job searching and other students hunt for resume-building summer internships.

Associate director for career services Deanna Goddard, said students should always be active in their chosen career field.

“It’s important to make a presence in your industry, even if it doesn’t result in a job,” Goddard said.

Goddard serves as the Winona State University representative on the official job fair committee for the Minnesota State Universities Job and Internship Fair.  The fair takes place on Feb. 6, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Earle Brown Heritage Center in the Twin Cities.

The fair costs $25 before Feb. 1. The cost covers buses that provide full trip transportation for both the Winona and Rochester campuses and a $10 food voucher at the Earle Brown Heritage Center. Cost of the event day-of is $30, but that does not include the bus ride to the event.

The fair includes three rooms of employers that students can visit and a fourth room in which the employers conduct interviews. The fair is also primarily for upperclassmen looking for internships and seniors and alumni looking for entry-level positions, Goddard said.

This year, once a student visits all three rooms of employers, that student will get entered into a drawing to win a prize, including an iPad mini, a Fitbit, a travel voucher and Beats by Dre.

There are seven Minnesota state universities collaborating in the planning of the event, including a year-round planning process involving an executive committee that oversees the fair and seven representatives from the universities who work with their own career service offices to work out the logistics of the fair for each campus.

“We want it to be a welcoming environment for the students,” Goddard said.

Each year the committee makes changes based on student and employer feedback.  Goddard said collaboration among the universities is also an important factor in making the fair a success.

About 150 to 300 employers attend the fair each year. Information on this year’s employer attendees is available online and most of the industries represented will be for-profit businesses, Goddard said.

“A large number of [employers] are going to be in the finance industry, business administration, accounting, insurance and large for-profit companies like Target,” Goddard said. “The majority of students that would be interested in this fair would be from the school of business and some liberal arts as well depending on what type of company students want to work for.”

Goddard said she advises students reach out to employers ahead of time to try to set up interviews.

Goddard said she has noticed very strategic students attend the fall fair to meet employers and by the spring fair they are able to reintroduce themselves and already have relationships built with employers.

Whether the fair results in a job or not, Goddard said she advises interested students to make the investment in the fair, so they can network and put their names out there.