2025 Fall Career Fair draws more than 200 firms, with activist presence
Most employers represented the technology and finance industries
Vivian Hir–The Tech
Samuel Yuan -- The Tech
Samuel Yuan -- The Tech
Over 200 firms — ranging from Jane Street and Google to the NSA and fledgling startups — drew interest from flocks of eager students at MIT’s 2025 Fall Career Fair on Friday, Sept. 19. Employers, as usual, handed out free T-shirts, water bottles, and other goodies; student activist groups, meanwhile, handed out flyers decrying particular employers for their controversies.
Hosted in the Johnson Athletic Center, this year’s fair saw an overall increase in the number of participating employers, with 225 organizations compared to last year’s 180. According to a statement by Deborah Liverman, Executive Director of MIT’s Career Advising & Professional Development (CAPD) office, event attendance between 2024 and 2025 remained “similar” at around 4,200 attendees. At the same time, Liverman noticed an increase in the number of “employers seeking to connect with candidates for interviews directly following the fair,” as “nearly 300 interviews” were held this year.
According to employer participation data from the CAPD website, participating employers skewed heavily towards technology and quantitative finance. The geographical composition reflects this pattern as well: The majority of American corporations present are headquartered in either California (51), Massachusetts (50), or New York (25) — the former and the latter being hotbeds of technology and finance, respectively. Liverman also noted the increased presence of “small start-ups” in “data science, artificial intelligence, robotics, and aerospace” this fall, such as Tilde Research and Liquid AI.
Notably absent this year, though, was defense giant Lockheed Martin. Recruiters from Lockheed left during the previous career fair following student protests.
Indeed, recent career fairs, including Friday’s, have been marked by political activism. Student groups such as the Coalition for Palestine (C4P) and MIT Divest were seen handing out flyers at the fair that accused certain companies, such as L3Harris and Glencore, of being “complicit in genocide” or facilitating “atrocities.”
James Randall ’28, a member of C4P who helped distribute flyers, hoped that his actions would “remind people that it’s important to have ethical careers.” Randall also noted that activist groups did not “interface directly” with companies at the event.
In her statement, Liverman wrote that “another notable trend we’re seeing is employers planning separate on-campus recruiting events” instead of attending the fair, with Silicon Valley giants Apple, Meta, and NVIDIA pursuing this route. Moreover, for students whose interests span outside the industries represented at the Fall Career Fair, Liverman cites the Deep Tech Fair, the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Career Fair, and reciprocal career fairs at Harvard as further windows for professional enrichment.
Overall, Liverman believes that the CAPD office was “pleased to give all students many varied opportunities to engage with employers of interest to them” and “appreciates each employer’s participation.”