HTM Career Day Wows Recruiters and Alumni

Tue., Mar 25, 2008
“Without question, our Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) program’s annual Career Day on March 5th raised the bar for recruiting events on the entire campus. I chatted with a number of recruiters who agreed that the day’s events lived up to the “hospitality” component of our HTM department’s name,” emphasized Isenberg School dean Tony Butterfield after the event. HTM Career Day, which attracted 48 recruiting companies and more than 400 students, featured two events: a recruiting fair in the Campus Center Auditorium and a reception for recruiters and alumni in the new $6.3 million Marriott Center for Hospitality Management on the Campus Center’s 11th floor.

“Both events were student-run. They had a professionalism beyond all expectations,” observed Nic Wegman, director of the Isenberg School’s Chase Career Center. “Every aspect of HTM Career Day was meticulously coordinated with great attention to detail.” That included the layout and décor of the fair space, the personal attention to the needs of each recruiter, and the preparation of the students themselves. “The students had been prepped on dress, resumes, and interviewing through workshops run by [the Chase Career Center’s] Kim Figuera and Amy Apicerno,” noted Wegman. “Recruiters were uniformly enthusiastic about their overall experience and our students.”

Planning for the event began in September by a committee of ten HTM students, each focusing on separate domains including marketing, finance, facilities operations, volunteering, and other activities. During the planning, the students received periodic guidance from two advisors—department head Rod Warnick and academic advisor Derek Bratton.

“Mobilizing student volunteers was crucial to HTM Career Day’s success,” underscored HTM student Kelly Nussdorfer ’08, who served as chairperson of the student committee. “Our recruitment of more than 100 volunteers allowed us to assign a student representative to each of the 48 companies,” she continued. “Those companies represented a true cross-section of the hospitality industry—from hotel giants like Starwood and Marriott to growing restaurant chains like Border Café to country/recreation clubs like Ledgemont Country Club in Seekonk. Professor Warnick worked overtime to help us recruit the right mix of recruiters, including many companies that sent alumni to the event. Almost every recruiting table had one or more graduate of our program.”

The reception for the recruiters in the Marriott Center revealed the same attention to hospitality and detail. “It was a showcase for Dr. [Linda] Kenny’s catering class, which coordinated and catered the event,” Nussdorfer continued. “It gave us as students an opportunity to interact casually with the recruiters and alumni.”

What can the Isenberg School’s other academic departments learn from HTM Career Day and the school’s HTM program itself? “I think we demonstrated the value of customer service and how to achieve it,” remarks Nussdorfer. “Understanding how to treat customers correctly is a hallmark of the hospitality industry, but it has value for every industry, every businesses.”

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