The College of Business Career Services and the Center for Information Systems (CIS) is teaming up with NEOSA (North East Ohio Software Association) to hold the fifth annual Information Technology Career Expo on Thursday, April 17.

The IT Expo will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the second floor of the Kent State Student Center.

“The main goal behind the expo is to try and attract students into IT related majors,” said Catherine Bakes, associate professor in management and information systems and co-director of CIS. “The secondary objective of the expo is for students who have already selected IT to learn more about the field and the different career paths they could take.”

Bakes said the demand for IT positions is growing.

“Hardly a day goes by when I don’t get emails from companies looking for students,” Bakes said. “Enrollment has been down 60 percent worldwide and it’s just now starting to come back up.”

Kristin Williams, director of the College of Business Administration Career Services, said if students are thinking about IT the expo is a great chance to look at the various IT jobs as well as IT majors at Kent State.

“If they are a junior or a senior it’s a really unique opportunity to connect with employers,” Williams said. “They might then end up interning with them or finding full time work with them.”

Williams said Chuck Mackey, senior managing director at Avantia Inc., will be the keynote speaker from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Kent State Student Center Ballroom. Mackey will be speaking to those attending about “IT security tends, threats and countermeasures”.

After the keynote speaker at 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jim Jastatt, executive committee member for the CIS, president of MISA (Management of Information Systems Association) and junior computer sciences major said students will be able to visit a variety of tables outside the ballroom set up along the windows.

“They can talk to different employers about what they do at their jobs and how it relates to what they are studying in college,” Jastatt said.

Bakes said there will be 19 different tables for students to visit. With 12 tables covering functional areas in IT.

Bakes said there will also be several professional representatives at each tables from companies such as Allstate Insurance, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and Lincoln Electric.

“IT is in everything these days,” Bakes said. “No matter what your major is you are probably using a computer, a network, a database or a website.”

Bakes said students attending can receive flashperks, enter in a raffle to win an iPad and enter in a raffle to win $500 in Amazon gift cards.

For more information about the IT Career Expo visit www.kent.edu/business.

Contact Alexis Cummins at [email protected].