With just two months remaining in the semester, many students started their job search at a career fair offered on campus.

Kara Lutley, a senior marketing and business information systems major, was one of the many hopeful students at the event.

“This is my fifth time coming to the career fair,” Lutley said. “I’ve been coming every year since I was a second-semester sophomore looking for internships. Now I’m graduating in May…I thought I might as well come back and look for an actual job.”

Lutley said she thought a career fair was a good place to learn about companies and positions that she would not have otherwise known existed.

She said she was hopeful because a few of her friends who graduated this past May were contacted for interviews after meeting recruiters at the career fair. Many of those interviews turned into full time jobs, Lutley said.

Several seniors at the career fair, including Mariam Khedery, a senior fashion merchandising major, said the only thing holding them back was their own nerves.

“Going up to someone and having to tell them everything about you in a few minutes is really intimidating,” Khedery said.

Lutley said getting used to that part of a career fair takes practice and she has not always been good at it.

“[The recruiters] don’t always jump out at you,” Lutley said. “You have to walk up there and introduce yourself.”

John Thompson, executive director of Career Services, said he understood that many students may be intimidated by recruiters or potential employers, but that there was no reason to be afraid.

“They are here to recruit you. They want you as much as you want them,” Thompson said. “Sometimes you just have to suck it up.”

Thompson said he was confident that TCU students were prepared for careers after college and that recruiters that he speaks with agree.

“Everyone that I talk to, without hesitation, says that TCU students are the most prepared of all the colleges that they go to,” he said.

Dawn Walker, a recruiter from Concord Medical Group, agreed and said she was impressed with TCU students.

She said she often found better candidates for positions at career fairs because she was able to get to know the potential candidates personally before deciding to meet them for an interview.