Job and internship opportunities have improved this year at the biannual Engineering Employment Expo. Just over 170 companies, including Rolls Royce, BP, Procter & Gamble, the CIA and many others are participating in the career fair this week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Engineering Employment Expo compliments last week’s Engineering Career Services Career Fair. Mike Alvarez, expo director, said these two weeks combined have brought over 400 companies to the University. The Expo will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in the Illini Union rooms A, B and C. Next spring’s exposition is scheduled for Feb. 10.

Alvarez said recruiters are always eager to attend the event at a premier facility like the University.

“Recently the University of Illinois was ranked at number three in recruiting for the nation … We’re all pretty happy with that because we felt like we had at least a small part to do with that,” Alvarez said. “(Recruiters) are typically pretty excited, which is why we get returning companies, because they have great success at our fair.”

Alvarez said that students who have never attended a career fair still go in with confidence.

He suggested beginning talking with smaller companies first to break the ice, then building up to the companies that are of greater interest. Being familiar with and knowing a few statistics about each recruiter can help when being presented to a company. Alvarez said most companies will conduct interviews within the week for potential job or intern positions.

Dan Bernstein, product developer for the Clorox Company, said they try to attract different majors that are applicable with entry level positions. They also look for juniors to hire as interns and freshmen and sophomores to network with.

“Depending on whether the economy is strong or not, before we weren’t hiring full-time (employees). Now, we cut ourselves so thin, we’ve got to now look at both interns and full-times,” Bernstein said. “So, every time we come here, we see strong candidates, and I personally love coming back here.”

Brandon Seerup, senior in Engineering, said he has attended previous employment expositions before and appreciates the opportunity to meet with companies that he may not have considered initially.

“There was a lot of companies interested in hiring. I think that the prospects for graduating seniors are a lot better than they have been from past years,” Seerup said. “It seems just like everybody is looking to hire some full-time positions.”