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MARSHALL - High schoolers had a chance to get information about different careers Tuesday at the Southwest Minnesota Career Expo at Southwest Minnesota State University.

While half of the 1,100 area sophomores got advice on how to make a good impression in an interview in the Conference Center, the other half was in the Recreation/Athletics Facility exploring the booths of 60 exhibitors who answered questions about various careers. The students got massages, rode bikes to generate electricity and tried virtual painters, among other things.

Lyndsay Johnson of Wabasso and Moriah Hoffman of Canby got massages at the Minnesota West Community and Technical College of Pipestone's booth.

"I want to be a physical therapist," Johnson said.

"Pretty cool so far," Hoffman said, adding she got the massage because she was thinking about massage as a career and wanted a good back rub.

Shannon Schmitz, with Minnesota West, said "massage doesn't have to be a stand-alone degree. You can use it to go into more specialized degrees: nursing, chiropractic, special education," she said.

"I have a special education degree and got massage therapy to help with the cerebral palsy and ADHD kids," Schmitz said.

Baily LaMountain of New Ulm was testing her coordination with a virtual painter at the Auto Body Rod, Custom & Restoration booth run by Del Bresson of Minnesota West's Granite Falls campus.

"It was really weird," LaMountain said. "I had to coordinate head movement with hand movement."

She doesn't think she would make it a career.

"I don't know, I wasn't really good at it," she said. "Just looking around. Don't really know what I want to do. Getting ideas."

Tyler Haight of Canby was up on an electrical pole using the tools of the lineman's trade.

"It was fun," he said, adding he might consider it as a career. "Just kind of looking around, seeing what options there are."

He wasn't the only one checking out the Power Lineman booth, said Kevin Thompson, training coordinator for Minnesota Municipal Utilities.

"This morning, we were busy. Had 100 or more kids, girls and boys, not just boys," he said. "It is male-dominated, but the females are definitely in the industry and I think you will see more of them in the future."

In the Conference Center, Kim Boom, graduate assistant in Career Services for SMSU, gave the kids tips:

Dress properly (suit, simple jewelry, lose the piercings, cover tattoos)

Research the school or business you are visiting

Research yourself (strengths and weaknesses, and spin your weaknesses as strengths)

Write a thank you note. "You never know when it will help you out in the end," Boom said.

After Boom's talk, the students became contestants and played "The Career is Right" game show.