NIU’s Cooperative Education Office stresses that students need to sharpen their resumes and interview skills before its upcoming Internship Career Fair.

The fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Convocation Center.

Fair coordinator Mireya Pourchot said internships are becoming increasingly critical to landing a job, especially in a tight economy.

“More and more, internships are becoming one of the most important things in terms of when it comes down to two candidates,” she said. “The one with more experience is the one they are going to pick.”

According to the education office, more than 58 percent of all graduates with internship experience are offered full-time jobs from their employers before graduation.

Carol Gorman, a coordinator in the Cooperative Education Office, said students graduating without an internship might not find a job at all.

“I am working with business students and I am finding that if they graduate without [an internship], they are having a lot of difficulty finding a permanent position,” she said.

Coordinator Dan Bingley said internships can change a student’s career path.

“An internship lets you try out your degree,” he said. “It gets you out in the field. Some students take an internship and they end up finding out that working in the field is nothing like they thought it would be, so they elect to change degrees.”

Pourchot said students need to prepare for the fair as soon as possible.

“Students need to brush up on the companies, which means they need to know who is coming,” she said. “They need to have a resume, and the sooner they can do that, the better, because everyone waits to the last minute and then we get really crowded.”

Gorman said students should visit the Cooperative Education Office’s Web site, www.recruitinterns.net, for a list of employers attending the fair, job descriptions and tips on everything from resumes to appropriate attire.

“Research is critical because of Internet access and every company having Web pages,” she said. “They expect that a student at least understands who their customers are and where the company is headed.”

Bingley said the fair attracts a variety of companies.

“We will have everything from small, family-owned businesses to large corporations like IBM and Sears,” he said.

Gorman said companies that send recruiters often are in better shape financially than companies that don’t send recruiters.

“The employers that come always reflect what’s going on in the economy,” she said. “Other industries are coming that in the past didn’t recruit as much. I am seeing more real estate-related positions and more positions from the insurance and banking industries and federal and state offices.”

Pourchot said students who don’t obtain an internship after the fair still get something out of the experience.

“Even if they don’t get a job, they get experience verbalizing their resume and being able to present it in a clear, concise way when you are talking to recruiters,” she said.