Thanks for including an article about Career Fair 2000 in your March 30 issue.
There are a few things we would like to clarify in order to help students understand the process of a Career Fair.
We believe that some expectations about Career Fairs come from a lack of knowledge on students’ part. This letter is to hopefully assist students in being better informed for future Career Fairs.
We maintain a database of over 1,800 employers.
For each Career Fair, we invite every one of them to join us.
These employers cover all industries, services, and majors. Many companies look for a variety of students, not just the obvious ones. Employers choose to attend or decline the invitation based on a number of factors.
The reason cited most is that it is not cost-effective for them to attend when they have just a few openings. Many, many opportunities exist in smaller companies; not just those who are trendy, exciting, and/or high profile.
Those of you who visit us earlier than your senior year might recall that we emphasize “thinking out of the box” and looking at companies that may not be so glamorous, although tremendous opportunities exist.
Career Fairs are not designed to have an employer hire a student on the spot.
First, Temple University is a large school. We have a large Career Fair. Hence, it seems logical that a large number of students will attend – it’s the Law of Averages.
Conversely, Gamma’s Career Fair is for Risk Management students only. Because it is a specialized field there will be fewer students therefore more time is spent with each student.
Second, if you were to go to most Career Fairs, you will find that recruiters will have large piles of resumes: one pile is for those applicants that they want to interview, those that are rejected, and those they are not sure of.
Do not expect to be hired on the spot at a Career Fair!
Think of it this way- if your resume were on line, it would be stored in a database to be recalled when a position is available. It is a similar process at a Career Fair. A student’s job at a Career Fair is to present their 1-minute commercial, express interest in the company, and impress the recruiter so your resume goes in the interview pile.
Our Career Connections newsletter, mailed to all seniors in the fall of 1999, included an article titled, “Is A Job Fair Right For Me?” It discussed the fact that there are some majors that employers do not recruit at Career Fairs.
These usually are creative fields or highly competitive fields such as communications, journalism, architecture, the arts, theatre, and others that are similar. New World Productions will not be showing up at a Career Fair to hire one Production Assistant.
Students in the above areas need to utilize a larger variety of job search techniques such as networking. Bianca Davis, a senior, had three calls from employers that she met at Career Fair 2000.
They were bank, retail, and media employers. Her major? Public Relations.
She was successful because she did not allow her degree to define who she was. Rather, she looked for opportunities in companies where she could utilize her skills as well as her major to grow in her profession.
We encourage feedback from students. It allows us to improve our services as well as opens an opportunity for educating students about transitioning from college to career.
Students received an evaluation form that we ask them to complete and return to us.
In addition, if students have novel approaches to get employers they want at the Career Fairs, please feel free to share them with us. We are always looking for new ideas and approaches.
With over 50 years of experience in Career Development we have grown in scope of services and expertise. For instance, career fairs were small events; they are now 2 major Career Fairs a year in one of the larger venues in Philadelphia. We generate over 10,000 job leads a year. We have a top-quality student resume database that companies worldwide access on a regular basis.
We have a comprehensive web site with hundreds of links to career information and jobs for all majors. We have 8 professional staff who specializes in career counseling services.
Thank you for the opportunity to clarify and educate students.
The Career Development Services Staff:
Patricia Peterson, Director
Kathy Gallagher, Associate Director
Dan Dawley, Assistant Director for Co-op
John Arentzen, Career Coordinator
Andrew Cronan, On-Campus Recruitment Coordinator
Andre Pate, Career Coordinator
Rose Reisser, Career Coordinator
Preeti Singh, Career Coordinator
Rochelle Barker, Administrative Assistant
Jennifer Bunch, Office Manager
Louise Oglesby, Credentials
Nancy Vann, Receptionist
Ronald Brown, Peer Educator
Bianca Davis, Peer Educator
Pradeep Renninger, Peer Educator
Christine Simms, Graduate Assistant
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