A low rumble of professional small talk hummed through the rafters Thursday morning, as students went table to table in search of their future.

Southeast's Fall Career Expo on Oct. 10 filled the Student Recreation Center with row after row of industry professionals, eager to meet potential new employees.

More than 130 organizations sent representatives to recruit at Southeast.

“We like to attend the fall career fairs, as we are typically recruiting for our summer internship program the following year,” said Taylor Kirn, human resources generalist for Delta Companies Inc.

Kirn said although her company may still attend the Spring Career Expo, fall events are the key opportunities for those in search of a position in the coming year.

There were plenty of positions being offered, from travel nursing and copywriting to census taking and law enforcement.

But across all fields, the recruiters seemed to be in search of the same traits in a candidate, stressing the value of punctuality, dependability and a desire to work and learn.

“In the future, we want to go to every career fair SEMO has,” said Cameron Long, human resources generalist for Isle of Capri Cape Girardeau. “We want to make sure we take care of our community before we take care of everything else.”

Long said his company pulls about 20 candidates every year from Southeast’s career expos.

After all the handshakes and interviews were done, Southeast junior Martin Woods said he was left feeling anxious, excited and inspired.

Woods attended the career fair to talk to Abstrakt Marketing Group but learned from every conversation he had at the expo.

"Mingling with other businesses I hadn't necessarily thought about encouraged me to be a lot more innovative in how I promote myself," Woods said.

Though the date has yet to be determined, the next career expo will be held during the spring semester.