The College of Business Administration’s Career Services Office held their first ever, “Coffee, Cupcakes & Careers” kick-off event Tuesday afternoon.

The College of Business and Administration is the first college on Kent State’s campus to have a satellite Career Services office. According to Kristin Williams, the director of the new office, the space will serve students of the college primarily. It opened last November, with the 2014-2015 school year being its first full year in operation.

“(The kick-off event) is kind of like a fair in that students can come and go to the stations that we have available,” said Mandy McNamee, internship coordinator for the Career Services Office. “The stations are essentially just little snippets of what we can offer to students. It gets them to our space, they know where we are in the building.”

McNamee said the stations offered to students were a photo booth, where students could get their photo taken for a professional LinkedIn profile; a career dress etiquette session, where males learn how to tie a tie and females learn about different kinds of business attire, ranging from dressy to business casual; a mock interview game where students learn the dos and don’ts of interviewing; and a station where students could set up their profile so they could apply for on campus jobs.

“We hoped to make it a blend of education and still make it fun,” said Associate Direction of Career Education Holly Klenk. “This is geared specifically towards the students here, to help them prepare for jobs and internships after college.”

Students who participated in all four of the sessions were entered into a drawing to win lunch with Deborah Spake, the Dean of the College of Business Administration. Spake spoke of the factors behind planning and putting on the kick-off event.

“We know that students sometimes don’t get the kind of advice, perhaps at home or through part time jobs, that they really need before they go out on the job market for a business job,” she said. “So the purpose of the event is to help them get ready.”

Freshman business undeclared major Savannah Givan was one of the first students to attend the kick-off event. She received notification of the first session, the picture for the LinkedIn profile, through email, and thought it would be a good opportunity.

“I thought it was going to be just a ‘come take your photo, take some pamphlets, and then leave’ thing,” said Givan.

Along with being photographed, Givan also learned the different ways to dress at work and a few tips about interviewing.

The kick-off event will be held again Wednesday, Sept. 10. from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Contact Tristan Buirley at [email protected].