Aah it’s that time again. Career Fair Day. Where students from all over campus armed with resumes and a firm handshake, flock to Alumni Hall in hopes of meeting a future employer.

For some, the career fair brings excitement at the possibility of an internship or, better yet, a job.

For this reporter, the fair was a merely a bi-annual reminder that I should have been a finance major. I walked away from the fair with a pocket full of free candy, a ‘Yo Soy El Army’ bumper sticker and a new feeling of despair about my future job at Starbucks.

Business majors shook hands with “The Big Four” accounting firms which include KPMG LLP, Ernst ‘ Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Deloitte.

Nursing majors were cured of their job apprehensions with the appearance of 11 hospitals and care centers.

However, there were no museums for Art History majors to get excited about, no firms for future engineers, no media avenues for Communication majors… unless you expect students of the most popular major on campus to get excited about Blockbuster!

How come out of the seventy-two companies represented so many students were left feeling their majors were not represented?

Michael Dalton of the Career Planning Center said there seems to be an Accounting/Finance/Nursing theme in the fall career fair because “financial and accounting firms start the job search earlier in the year, making their selections before Christmas”.

He acknowledged that complaints from students in the Arts ‘ Sciences are not uncommon after these fairs.

And complaints there were.

“I was happy to see a couple of companies that I could talk to, however people who aren’t taking classes in the business school were out of luck,” said Lindsay Brown 05. ” I think next time there should be at least a couple of companies to suite each major so no one is excluded and left feeling frustrated.”

Heather Manning ’05 more than agreed with Brown. ” I think that the career fair needs to cater towards many more majors than they currently do,” she said. “I know a lot of seniors didn’t even bother to go because unless you are an accounting or nursing major there really aren’t many options.

“Even the larger companies that have many departments look at you like you are crazy when you say you aren’t a business major,” she added.

Mike Bond, a senior English major agreed, “The career fair seemed great for business majors. However, for other students the pickings were rather slim.”

Even Kathryn Hendren ’05, a business major left the fair feeling unsatisfied.

“I feel the fair was bad because they only had financial services or accounting firms,” she said. “Being a management and business law double major, I was looking to find more Public Relation, Human Resource and Marketing firms.”

“I would have liked to see more companies represented from outside the Connecticut area,” she added.

Despite the seemingly poor feedback from students, Dalton said the Career Planning Center received great feedback from the employers.

The companies that attended the career fair commnted that the “students were better prepared to meet with representatives and were better dressed” than in previous fairs.

Dalton added, the career fair used to be called ‘Career Spectrum’ and was more of an educational experience.

“In the last three to five years the career fairs have become increasingly more job oriented,” he said.

Dalton felt assured that the spring career fair which will take place in the first week of February would produce a broader spectrum of companies. The center is looking to get more market research, environmental, science, advertising, and public relations firms for the next career fair.

He also said to expect “smaller firms and more socially oriented firms.”

Dalton explained that the career planning center encourages students to use the career fairs to “get a sense of what’s out there” and for all majors to be optimistic about the whole process because these firms interview all sorts of students. Dalton also advised students to “not let your major define you.”

Paul Duffy ’05, FUSA president, shared a more optimistic view.

“It was hard in terms of timing it for the students. The fair had good companies for nursing and business majors. Perhaps in the future, club presidents can work to get more majors represented,” said Duffy.

“Students should be more open minded about the fair, if you’re in English you can still fit in with these companies,” he said.

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