Career fair brings students and founders together on USC campus

Spark SC hosted a Startup Career Fair on Feb. 19 that brought 25 hiring startups to campus, and organizers said they expected about 1,000 students with roughly 350 confirmed sign-ups.

Spark SC hosted the Startup Career Fair on Feb. 19 at the Tutor Campus Center Ballroom. The event brought 25 startups to campus, including student-founded ventures and companies backed by venture capital. Organizers said they anticipated roughly 1,000 students and had about 350 confirmed sign-ups before the fair. Startups at the event were hiring for roles across engineering, product, business development and design. Key details: - 25 startups attended, including student-founded companies and those backed by venture capital firms. - Organizers anticipated about 1,000 students and reported roughly 350 confirmed sign-ups ahead of the event. - Startups were recruiting multiple roles across engineering, product, business development and design. - Spark SC is a USC student organization that fosters entrepreneurship and has run the Startup Career Fair nearly annually since 2015. - One exhibitor said their team spoke with around 60 students and was hiring for roughly 10 different roles. Summary: The fair created direct in-person connections between students and startup founders, which organizers and attendees described as different from typical corporate recruiting. Spark SC leaders said they hope to deepen partnerships with the Los Angeles startup community to build a stronger pipeline of USC students into local startups. The longer-term effects on student career paths and local hiring were undetermined at this time.