With the end of the semester on the horizon, students across campus, especially seniors, are asking, “What am I going to do when I get out of this place?” This Thursday, a career fair will help answer that question.
This year, the Career Planning Center sent out 600 invitations to local and national employers.
Between the hours of 12:00 and 3:00 p.m., Alumni Hall will be filled with businesses looking for new employees.
Most of the approximately 90 businesses that replied are looking for students with a liberal arts background.
“For the most part these firms will be looking for a wider range of students,” said Dennis Amrine, acting director of the Career Planning Center. “When surveyed, employers said the number one thing they were looking for was communication skills; written, verbal and listening. Students get these skills from the classroom, and from many different facets of the university as well as any internship programs that they do.”
But for some, the unknown future seems to be causing a little stress.
“I am definitely nervous,” said Dede Tabak ’05 an art history major.
On the other hand, her housemate, Jill Amato ’05, who is double majoring in both communications and theater said she isn’t worried because she “wants to go into theater, but if I was going to use my communications major I would be a little concerned.”
Amrine believes that students of all majors will find the Career Fair to help with some of their concerns.
“The firms that attend the Career Fair are looking at the Fairfield student because they know that Fairfield University is a great school,” he said. “We have a rigorous curriculum, wide arrays of different academic disciplines are represented, and most businesses know that a lot of the students have internships.”
But some students say that the Career Fair is primarily for those who are pursuing a business major and are disinterested in attending.
“I wouldn’t go because they seem to only have jobs for the business school. If they do have jobs for those students with an arts and science major, they should advertise it more,” Jennifer Kagl ’07 said.
According to Amrine, “All majors are attractive to many different employers. What sets students apart is their time spent looking for internships, their motivation and academic record,” he said.
At the fall Career Fair, Amato felt that there “needed to be more diversity. Banks, television studios and advertising firms would have been nice to see.”
The Career Planning Center, located on the first floor of the Barone Campus Center has several programs to assist with resumes, internships, and helping students find jobs in different careers. It also has a Specialized Career Panel to target industries such as advertising, public relations, radio, television and other work in the media.
While career planning is a development process and is going to be different for each student, the second semester of sophomore year seems to be the best time to start thinking about future occupation.
But Amrine says that seniors should not fret if they still don’t know what they are going to do after college.
“There isn’t a last moment that the Career Planning Center can’t help a student,” he said. “We will work with seniors all the way through April and May and whenever the student is ready to come to meet with us we will be available.”
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