There were only 15 available seats on Thursday afternoon in Pace University’s Kessel Center Conference Room and Nicole Catalfamo wasn’t even sure they would be occupied.

Catalfamo, the assistant director for Dyson Programs and Services, was hosting the “How to Work a Job and Internship Fair” and traditionally never saw Thursday’s timeslot as a big draw. This time, however, she was pleasantly surprised.

“I expected less students because I always hear that Thursday common hour is not a true common hour [and] not everybody has this time slot available,” Catalfamo said. “So, I was actually expecting way less and I’m happy with this positive turnout.”

Jordan Benavides, a sophomore Applied Psychology major at Pace, did not want to miss out on this event once he heard about it.

“Somebody came up to me in the hallway [about this event],” Benavides said. “For future experience, I wanted to prepare just incase this event ever happened again.”

Before the event began, Catalfamo asked that each student in the room sign their name on an attendance sheet. She then passed out a flyer about the fall internship fair and a 30-second pitch exercise sheet.

At 3:30, Catalfamo began a PowerPoint presentation and spent time discussing strategies on how students can make a positive impression on companies at the upcoming career fair. Students took notes as Catalfamo spoke.

Some of the tips that Catalfamo gave to the students about how to prepare were to dress professionally, research the company ahead of time and always keep multiple resumes handy.

After her presentation, Catalfamo called on random students to present their 30-second pitches. Other students in the room commented on what they liked and what should be worked on after a student was finished with his/her pitch.

Benavides liked this exercise because students had the opportunity to practice face-to-face with Catalfamo and other students nearby.

“Now I know what to include in my 30-second pitch,” Benavides said. “I had no idea how exactly to prepare for it [and] I’m prepared now.

According to Catalfamo, about 6,000 internships were posted on Pace’s “Handshake” database this year.

“It depends on the school,” Catalfamo said. “The Dyson internship placement on the Pleasantville campus for this past year was 74 percent. So 74 percent of Dyson College [students] were interning at an internship in the last fiscal year.”

Catalfamo discussed Pace’s job and internship connections for students. For this reason, the university is able to hold a career fair each term.

“We have an employer relations team dedicated to employer development,” Catalfamo said. “So, we have employer-relations employees on this campus as well as the New York City campus [and] they all have their target industries. Then, they go out into the field and they network and they sell the employers on Pace and the Pace brand.”

Pace’s career fair will be held on October 5^th at the Pleasantville campus and November 3^rd at the New York City campus. Registration is required and is located on Pace’s “Career Service’s” website.