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Hundreds of UC Santa Barbara students descended on the Events Center Wednesday for the university’s annual Fall Career & Internship Fair and the chance to meet representatives of 115 local and global employers. This year’s event drew a mix of mostly technology companies from Microsoft to SpaceX and Goleta-based Yardi to Lockheed-Martin, and gave students the chance to get face time with recruiters sizing up talent for the near future.

Among the companies participating was Novacoast, a Santa Barbara-based IT, software and cybersecurity company with a long record of hiring UCSB graduates. Evan Moelter, a fifth-year computer science major, landed an internship with the company after attending last year’s event.

“It’s fantastic,” said Moelter, who attended the fair with company representatives. “I’ve had a lot of opportunity to do a bunch of different things. They’ve given me projects and I learn whatever I need to learn and execute them. I have a lot of freedom to do it how I want to, which is really nice.”

The career fair is presented by UCSB Career Services. “It serves as a vital bridge for connecting students and companies in mutually beneficial ways,” said Ignacio Gallardo, director of Career Services. “It offers a remarkable opportunity for students to meet informally with recruiting employers from a variety of industries to ask questions about job and internship openings, talk up their professional skills and make important connections.”

For students, many dressed in business attire and clutching resumes, the fair is a kind of dry-run for the job-hunting process. They get exposed to the rigors of interviewing, no matter how brief, and the need to make a good impression.

Lorena Covarrubias, a fourth-year electrical engineering major, does her homework. “I research the companies beforehand to make bullet points of what I should talk about before I actually go up to them,” Covarrubias said. “I try to know as much about the company as I can before I talk to them just so I can make it easier for them and kind of stand out a little more.”

Adam Proctor, a fourth-year student majoring in financial mathematics and statistics, was attending the fair for the third year. “I’ve been looking around and seeing different companies that I’d like to work for. I’ve been looking at financial companies and mathematical problem-solving companies. I’m trying to hit up as many companies as I can.”

Gallardo noted the fair is an invaluable recruiting tool for employers. “In a four-hour time frame, recruiters get the chance to meet face-to-face with hundreds of students who are interested in their company and can serve as an initial screening of talent,” he said. “From there, employers can decide who they would like to offer first-round interviews to.”

What’s more, he noted, “employers get a chance to meet non-traditional students such as outstanding humanities and liberal arts students who, despite their major, have developed a rich and diverse skill-set through valuable internship and volunteer experiences that meet their hiring needs.”