Exciting. Exclusive. Educational.
Students have mixed emotions regarding last Thursday’s Career Fair held at the Leslie C. Quick Jr. Recreational Complex.
Cathleen Borgman, the director of Career Planning said in response to the complaint of arts and science majors is “a vicious cycle.” She said that arts and science majors were doing themselves a big disservice by not attending the fair because even if companies came looking for arts and science majors, they would be unaware because they are not attending these events.
“If nothing else it’s a good experience for practicing your story about yourself,” said Borgman.
Borgman also said that Fairfield students are critical thinkers and there are companies out there looking for students of the arts and sciences, but if the students pre-judge the event, and decide not to go they will never be able to take advantage of the potential opportunities these events have to offer.
While arts and science majors felt the fair was geared more towards business majors, some of the finance companies would be happy to interview and consider non-business majors.
“Part of it is how you package yourself,” said Borgman, who added students have to be willing to seek out options they might not have considered, but would become more apparent after attending the event.
Borgman is aware that the career fair is geared more towards business majors, but said, “We are still trying to get more diversity.”
More than fifty companies were represented including big names such as GE, EMC, and GunnAllen Financial Corporation.
“The majority of the companies present were geared towards business majors,” said finance major Megan McConville ’08.
Ally Finnell, also finance major of ’07 agreed with McConville but added that the career fair in the fall was much more exclusive to arts and sciences students than the spring fair because “there’s a lot more variety.”
Robert Vaughan ’08 finance major was questioned as to what the largest draw was he too said business.
Scott Francis of ’08 a Finance/Marketing major found the fair to have “a good variety for business majors.” His only complaint was, “it was lacking in the marketing sector.”
Although the business majors seemed to be satisfied with the companies represented, students of the School of Arts and Sciences were disappointed.
“It was mostly geared towards business and nursing. The entire healthcare section was for nurses. I’d like to see more research positions and more options for psychology majors in the future,” said Antonia Randazzo ’08, a psychology major.
Biology, pre-med major, Chris Simao ’08 said the fair did not exclude engineering or nursing majors, but would like to see a fair which did focus on students looking for a business career.
Despite the large number of students in attendance, the fair was geared towards Business majors, especially finance students and many students did not go for one simple reason, according to Jim Kalinoski ’07 who said, “They just don’t seem to offer as many opportunities for majors outside of the business school.”
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