A Brandcenter student shows a recruiter her portfolio. (Jackie DiBartolomeo photos)
Eclectic advertising pitches for everything from Pepto-Bismol to tourism in Montenegro filled two floors of the VCU Brandcenter Wednesday during the school’s annual two-day “reverse” job fair.
The event brought about 100 recruiters and creatives to town to see what the school’s brightest advertising and branding students have been working on.
Running for over 20 years at VCU, the event, this year held April 23-24, flips typical job fair proceedings on its head. Soon-to-be-graduates each set up their own distinct stations, allowing recruiters to come to the students and comb through their portfolios.
This year’s fair hosted recruiters from Los Angeles companies and creative firms including Google, Deutsch and 72andSunny, and New York-based firms BBH and Wieden + Kennedy.
The fair also had its fair share of local talent. Local employers included Arts & Letters, CoStar, Familiar Creatures, Sylvain and the Martin Agency.
Arts & Letters, McKinney and CoStar were sponsors of the recruitment fair.
Brandcenter students chat among themselves at the hiring event.
Eighty-four students from the class of 2025 participated in this year’s event, Brandcenter associate director Ashley Sommardahl told BizSense. With the students’ portfolios just completed, Sommardahl said the job fair is the “debut” of the class’s work in the job market.
Students hailing from a mix of concentrations within the Brandcenter’s two-year master’s program, including art direction, copywriting, creative brand management, experience design and strategy, showcased their work at the job fair.
Nerves seemed to fill the atmosphere Wednesday morning as the students showed off their work to recruiters. Colorful portfolios portrayed a mixture of creative and wacky work, from advertisements showing weird ways to use Vaseline to a promotion for the Lizzie Borden House in Massachusetts, now a bed-and-breakfast.
Other concepts the students showcased included 1970s-esque Waffle House bus stop advertisements and a campaign for Teddy Grahams that would allow customers to purchase and bite the heads off customizable snack bears that resemble their exes, titled “Teddy Grahams Revenge Bears.”
One student shows off a Teddy Grahams-related project she did at the Brandcenter.
Along with the recruiters present at the Brandcenter, an additional 100 recruiters signed up to receive the students’ portfolios via email, meaning about 200 pairs of eyes are on the students this spring as they prepare to enter the workforce. When Sommardahl started at the Brandcenter around 2004, she said only about 30 recruiters attended that year’s event.
Sommardahl said the Brandcenter’s job placement rate for students within six months of graduation is generally over 90%, helped in part by the Brandcenter’s online catalog of student portfolios and events such as the reverse job fair.
“This is a great opportunity to meet a lot of people, but we’re also creating that online showcase of the students’ portfolios, and we’re blasting that out to all of our industry contacts,” Sommardahl said.
With that in mind, while many students are closing in on jobs, they prefer to attend the recruitment fair regardless to continue networking within the industry, she said.
Seven students from the class already have accepted jobs as of this week.
A Brandcenter student shows a recruiter her portfolio. (Jackie DiBartolomeo photos)
Eclectic advertising pitches for everything from Pepto-Bismol to tourism in Montenegro filled two floors of the VCU Brandcenter Wednesday during the school’s annual two-day “reverse” job fair.
The event brought about 100 recruiters and creatives to town to see what the school’s brightest advertising and branding students have been working on.
Running for over 20 years at VCU, the event, this year held April 23-24, flips typical job fair proceedings on its head. Soon-to-be-graduates each set up their own distinct stations, allowing recruiters to come to the students and comb through their portfolios.
This year’s fair hosted recruiters from Los Angeles companies and creative firms including Google, Deutsch and 72andSunny, and New York-based firms BBH and Wieden + Kennedy.
The fair also had its fair share of local talent. Local employers included Arts & Letters, CoStar, Familiar Creatures, Sylvain and the Martin Agency.
Arts & Letters, McKinney and CoStar were sponsors of the recruitment fair.
Brandcenter students chat among themselves at the hiring event.
Eighty-four students from the class of 2025 participated in this year’s event, Brandcenter associate director Ashley Sommardahl told BizSense. With the students’ portfolios just completed, Sommardahl said the job fair is the “debut” of the class’s work in the job market.
Students hailing from a mix of concentrations within the Brandcenter’s two-year master’s program, including art direction, copywriting, creative brand management, experience design and strategy, showcased their work at the job fair.
Nerves seemed to fill the atmosphere Wednesday morning as the students showed off their work to recruiters. Colorful portfolios portrayed a mixture of creative and wacky work, from advertisements showing weird ways to use Vaseline to a promotion for the Lizzie Borden House in Massachusetts, now a bed-and-breakfast.
Other concepts the students showcased included 1970s-esque Waffle House bus stop advertisements and a campaign for Teddy Grahams that would allow customers to purchase and bite the heads off customizable snack bears that resemble their exes, titled “Teddy Grahams Revenge Bears.”
One student shows off a Teddy Grahams-related project she did at the Brandcenter.
Along with the recruiters present at the Brandcenter, an additional 100 recruiters signed up to receive the students’ portfolios via email, meaning about 200 pairs of eyes are on the students this spring as they prepare to enter the workforce. When Sommardahl started at the Brandcenter around 2004, she said only about 30 recruiters attended that year’s event.
Sommardahl said the Brandcenter’s job placement rate for students within six months of graduation is generally over 90%, helped in part by the Brandcenter’s online catalog of student portfolios and events such as the reverse job fair.
“This is a great opportunity to meet a lot of people, but we’re also creating that online showcase of the students’ portfolios, and we’re blasting that out to all of our industry contacts,” Sommardahl said.
With that in mind, while many students are closing in on jobs, they prefer to attend the recruitment fair regardless to continue networking within the industry, she said.
Seven students from the class already have accepted jobs as of this week.
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Where’s the link to the online portfolios?
id love to see them, have a few gigs I may want to push through the new talent!