On Oct. 8, the Center for Internships and Career Development at Eastern Connecticut State University hosted the second annual Career Conversations for Business in the Tech Industry in collaboration with Business Information Systems Professor Alex Citurs. The event, described as “speed-networking” by Citurs, covered career areas ranging from social media to applications development. Each table had at least one alumni, intern or business representative who talked about their field and the work it entails.

The “career conversations” event was created to encourage networking so that students could learn more about careers that interested them. Citurs, who worked with the career center to create the event two years ago, said it gave students who work on weekends a time during the week to build connections. “There are students in this room who have internships and already have jobs waiting for them when they graduate.”

Justin Ferrari, an Eastern alumnus who majored in Business Information Systems with a minor in Computer Science, said his time at Eastern made him well prepared for the business industry. Like many other guest speakers, he encouraged students to work towards completing multiple internships. Jillian Wirth, a junior with a major in Accounting said internships were her reason for attending the event. “It’s interesting to see the different areas and focuses of business.”

The “speed networking” technique that Citurs described allowed students to go to tables covering multiple fields. With 12 minutes at each table, students were able to talk to the guest speakers about their careers and what they did on a day-to-day basis. Students were also provided with a pamphlet that had biographies for each guest speaker and conversation starters to get the discussion flowing. The most popular tables were Network Administration, Tech Support and Cyber Security, along with Application Development. Students were asked to sign in at each table that they visited, so that the University could understand the varying degrees of interest for each career path.