College track teams and company recruiters alike came from all over the East Coast to the Gerhard Fieldhouse on Feb. 27. Little did they know they would be crossing paths, sometimes literally.

Businesses seeking prospective University employees and interns started setting up their stations around the indoor track at 8 a.m. Two hours later, University student-athletes dressed in their track and field uniforms came to the indoor track and were confused as to how to conduct their warm-up exercises because their lanes were occupied with tables lined with brochures and resume folders.  

Bison track and field coach Trent Track approached an employer from a “fintech” company based in New Jersey, asking what all of the businesses were doing on his track. Before the altercation escalated, Track called a meeting with all of the employers.

“I was nervous for the competing teams to show up,” Track said. “While the environment was certainly professional in a job-sense, it proved to be just the opposite for our event.”

The track team argued that the career fair could easily be moved to another venue, but officials from the University’s Career Development Center worried that students and employers who had not yet arrived would not catch wind of a location change with such late notice. After much discussion, a creative conclusion was reached.

With many employers stressing their candidates’ abilities to multitask and adapt to unforeseen circumstances, these recruiters practiced what they preached by moving their stations to the space inside the track. Luckily, pole vault, high jump, and other field events were not scheduled to compete during the fair and possible bad landings or impalements were avoided.

“I hope the medical company I was talking to doesn’t think my hands are shaky because I flinched when the gun went off at the start of the mile run,” Doc Johnson ’20, an aspiring surgical intern, said.

“Some runners may have found the fair distracting, but I personally had a different experience,” Felicia Time ’19, a captain of the Bison women’s track team, said. “Watching those kids strive to get their dream jobs made me push myself harder during the race as if I were running towards my future career.”

While the set-up was unconventional, the two events ran successfully in the same space.  It resulted in both a win for the University track team and some undoubtedly memorable discussions with potential employers.