A crowd of student job-seekers, some in business attire, converged at the Tresidder Union’s Oak Room at noon yesterday for the Liberal Arts Career and Internship Fair — the first event of the Annual Stanford Career Week, a six-day informational sequence sponsored by the Stanford Career Development Center (CDC). The series culminates with Saturday’s Career Conference, co-sponsored by the CDC and the Stanford Alumni Association with support from the Dean of Students Office.

Recruiting representatives from more than 40 firms were seated around the conference room at designated stations until the event closed at 4 p.m. The employers offered interested students literature about their companies and answered questions about starting positions and the nature of the work.

Marlene Stern, a career counselor with the CDC, said yesterday’s event was on par with past fairs.

“The turnout is pretty standard for an indoor event like this,” she said.

According to Stern, the Career Development Center maintains contacts with a large pool of employers, many of whom return on a yearly basis.

“We have a huge database of employers who expressed interest in recruiting Stanford students in the past,” she said.

The CDC is not proactive about securing certain firms for the fair — instead, companies usually respond to information about upcoming events on the Center’s Web site and arrange their participation.

Though it was titled the Liberal Arts Career and Internship Fair, the conference hosted companies from a range of industries seeking undergraduates from all majors. Among those present were Alesco Global Advisors, a San Mateo investment advisor in real estate securities; Gap Inc.; Grassroots Campaigns, an organization that specializes in supporting progressive candidates or movements and U.S. Army Health Care.

Stern opined that she found a correlation between one’s major and eventual career to be unusual and often unpredictable.

“My take on it is that your degree is about learning, and what you actually major in does not have much bearing on what kind of job you get,” she said. “It is a myth that you have to major in X to get a career in X, Y or Z. What is important is learning about work in general and acquiring skills through involvement in leadership, clubs, student groups, internships or research.”

Some of the employers said they were unconcerned about the prospective employee’s area of expertise. Eric Carlson, dean of the boarding program at Portola Valley’s Woodside Priory School spoke to students about a unique opportunity to teach one of a variety of topics at the school.

“We’re an independent school, so we’re able to hire people who do not have teaching credentials. We are looking for college graduates who have a degree in any number of subjects,” he said.

Carlson said he had received only a few resumes but had held some valuable conversations with students who had shown a genuine interest in teaching.

Junior Dinakar Muthiah, an electrical engineering major who had visited a number of booths, said he thought the employers seemed flexible.

“I’ve found that you can do pretty much whatever you want in terms of a major,” he said.

Muthiah was looking for a summer internship and was intrigued by the Teach for American program.

“It looks interesting,” he said, “and it seems like a non-evil thing to do.”

However, many of the consulting firms present outlined stricter requirements for job candidates.

Melissa Gerber of Nera Economic Consulting, said, “We are looking for upperclassmen primarily for summer internships. Also, though we do recruit at liberal arts colleges, a background in economics, math or finance is somewhat required.”

Gerber also said Nera was mostly targeting graduating seniors looking for jobs “on the full-time end.” She and her associate did not expect to select students for positions or accept applications while on campus, although they provided interested students with the necessary contact information.

“This visit is probably more for maintaining relations with the Stanford students,” Gerber explained.

Senior Mamei Sun said she was disappointed by the strong presence of consulting firms.

“I came here looking for something interesting to do this summer and it was a little disappointing because there are a lot of consulting firms which don’t necessarily encapsulate the most interesting kind of work,” she said.

Another attendee, freshman Julia Greenberg, wanted to line up a marketing internship for the summer. She said the career fair was different than she had anticipated.

“There is only one company here in marketing,” she said. “The other didn’t show. And unfortunately, most of the companies are recruiting upperclassmen.”