Approximately 2,400 students attended the first day of Cornell’s annual University Career Fair Days yesterday, sanitizing their hands between handing out resumes as fears of the H1N1 virus continue to grow.

The two-day long event began with the General Interest Career Fair, aimed at recruiting students of all majors and backgrounds for creative and business-oriented positions. The second day is focused on recruiting for engineering and technical positions.

A special “No Handshake Policy” was put into effect at this year’s fair to ease students’ and employers’ fears of getting sick.

Despite these sanitary measures, a few companies, including Hanover, C&S Wholesale, and TD Ameritrade, backed out from the fair at the last minute as a result of the flu scare, according to Rebecca Sparrow, director of Cornell Career Services.

The recession has further reduced the number of employers present at the career fair, although Sparrow said that number is still higher than she expected.

About 185 employers were in attendance yesterday while last year’s career fair –– held the day Lehman Brothers collapsed –– attracted about 250.

Despite this decline and ongoing fears of the flu, the number of students attending the event increased by 100 from last year, as competition escalates for positions at some of the nation’s top companies.

Lines of students gathered in front of the booths for Microsoft, General Electric, J.P. Morgan, Raytheon Company and the IRS, many of them speaking with representatives who had graduated from Cornell.

Brandon Bray ’01, a representative for Microsoft, said that Cornell students are very attractive to the company as potential employees since they are typically well-rounded individuals with diverse backgrounds.

Microsoft has been participating in the University Career Fair Days since the late ’80s, according to Bray, who interned at Microsoft through Cornell’s Engineering Co-op program when he was a student. This program allows engineering majors to work for a company of their choice during the school year. He added that many of the current Microsoft executives graduated from Cornell as well.

Bray said that the recession has not impacted on the number of applications they receive or the number of people they hire right out of college.

Other employers, however, said they had seen changes in students’ interest in their companies as competition increases for fewer available jobs.

Diana Vinning, the outreach manager for City Year New York, a national service organization devoted to helping troubled youth, said that her company has seen an increase in the number of applicants from last year.

“Students are considering alternative career options now because of the recession,” Vinning said. “With our program, students can sign up for just one year and gain experience that they might need for future jobs.”

By contrast, Kush Vora, a representative for Prudential Financial, Inc., said that although the number of applicants had remained the same, Prudential is accepting fewer of them. Vora said that although many of the applicants are qualified, the company must be selective in order to be profitable.

In order to compensate for the wide range of hiring patterns among employers, Cornell Career Services also offered students information about alternative career paths in areas such as publishing, teaching and social services. These occupations typically do not get represented at career fairs since companies in those fields lack the resources to set up booths and recruit students, according to Judy Jensvold, senior associate director of Health Careers in Career Services.Suit up: Barton Hall houses the annual Career Fair yesterday. While the recession already impacted the number of employers, several companies also withdrew due to H1N1 influenza concerns.

Career Services told students to dress in formal business attire in an effort to impress the employers and prepare for real-life interview situations. Sparrow said that in the past, students have been asked to leave the event due to inappropriate clothing.

Jipei Zhang grad attended the event wearing a skirt and a suit jacket, but said she was still concerned about making a good impression on the employers and securing a job.

Zhang said she is even considering switching career paths to open up more job opportunities, emphasizing to prospective employers her “transferable skills,” rather than the major declared on her diploma.

“This is an opportunity for students to learn what they need to do to make themselves marketable to employers,” she said. “The more they talk to them the more they learn, and that gives them an upper hand.”

The Technical and Engineering Career Fair, the second day of the University Career Fair Days, is being held today in Barton Hall.