Despite promises of an increased presence of companies interested in liberal arts candidates, student reaction was again mixed after the spring Career Fair last Thursday, where 90 companies were represented.
Businesses such as GE, Linens-N-Things, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, The Peace Corps, US Marine Corps, Deloitte’Touche and even the Conn. State Police Department stood beside tables with stacks of fliers and pamphlets touting their companies and employment opportunities.
Most agencies came with the hope of finding students who were “upbeat, had a positive attitude, had done their research about the company, and were ready with questions” said Barbara Hildebrand of BPA worldwide.
According to Timothy Snyder, the dean of the college of arts and science, most businesses today are not looking at a student’s major but the type of general skills that are in the students background.
“Today’s employers generally are not seeking students from a particular major or school,” he said. “But rather students who can read, write, think, process information, view situations and events from different perspectives, formulate discrete problems from complex situations, work well in groups and with persons of different backgrounds and do so with a firm sense of ethics and responsibility.”
Despite earlier claims of a liberal arms aimed fair, however, many students in the college of arts and sciences still felt that there weren’t enough businesses focused on their career interest.
Politics major Grace Bermudez ’05, said that she felt “that some of the representatives of the companies at the Career Fair were a little disappointing . They seemed to be looking for a certain person with a certain career”
Other students agreed.
“Over 30 percent of the tables had ‘Financial’ in their name and didn’t want an English major,” said Kate McCulley ’06. “And the only internships that I could see available from the Career Fair were based in Connecticut”
According to Snyder this is a common problem at most universities.
“For the Career Planning Center, the challenge is that offering services for college students requires work in many areas and career direction,” he said, ” for the professional schools such as the school of business, the scope of services is less broad and more easily obtained from the various corporations looking to hire.”
However, for some students, the Career Fair provided the assistance they needed with their future jobs.
“It gave me a good handle on the opportunities and internships available,” said Rick Cayer ’07, a finance and marketing major. “The Career Fair also strengthened my desire to get an internship.”
The Career Fair also gave direction for some students.
Vanessa Roscoe ’07, a business management and art history major said that the Career Fair has “confirmed that I want to change my major to marketing because there seems to be more of a variety of jobs and could incorporate the art aspect.”
But the Career Planning Center stressed that the Career Fair is not the only way to find a job or internship.
In March they will be offering career seminars for Communication Majors and in April will be hosting a conference entitled Your Major and Your Career.
“We have career panels, faculty relations, internships, an online job ward with part time and full time positions” said Quinlivan. “Whenever a student is ready to pick up the phone, we will be here for them to use us.”
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