Career Fair Unfairly Biased Towards Business Majors?

Exciting. Exclusive. Educational.

Students had mixed emotions regarding last Thursday’s career fair held in the RecPlex.

Career fairs held on campus in years past, as well as the department as a whole, have gained a reputation as catering only to business majors. Cathleen Borgman, the director of Career Planning, believes this year was different and that arts and science majors were doing themselves a big disservice if they did not attend the affair.

Some students disagreed.

“[The career fair] was mostly geared towards business and nursing,” said Antonia Randazzo ’08, a psychology major. “The entire healthcare section was for nurses. I’d like to see more research positions and more options for psychology majors in the future.”

Borgman is a Fairfield alum who majored in psychology. She believes that the career fairs can be beneficial to all students, regardless of their major.

“Part of it is how you package yourself,” said Borgman. “If nothing else, it’s a good experience for practicing your story about yourself.”

While arts and science majors felt the fair was geared more towards business majors, Borgman believes that some of the finance companies would be happy to interview and consider non-business majors. Borgman herself worked as a marketing representative at IBM with her bachelor of science degree.

Approximately fifty companies were represented including big names such as General Electric, EMC Corporation, and GunnAllen Financial Corporation.

Ally Finnell an ’07 finance major said that the career fair in the fall could have been more geared towards the arts and sciences students than the spring fair because “there was a lot more variety.”

Robert Vaughan ’08, also a finance major, agreed with Finnell’s assessment, citing the greater amount of businesses that were in attendance in the fall. The fall fair drew over 92 different employers, almost twice the amount that was in attendance last Thursday.

Although some arts and science majors may have left discontented, many of the business school students were happy with the turnout.

Scott Francis ’08 a finance and marketing double major said that there was “a good variety for business majors.”