Career fair allows for face time with employers
By Matt Rupel
Last Wednesday, the Career Center offered its quarterly Career Fair. About 90 companies from around the Bay Area gathered in the Benson Memorial Center to advertise job listings that ranged from internships to post-graduation jobs.
Hundreds of students roamed through the California Room and the Williman Room to examine the prospects. Some notable participants were Facebook, Lockheed Martin and Yahoo.
Government organizations such as the Peace Corps and NASA were also in attendance.
According to Elizabeth Thompson, the Career Fair is an effective way for students to meet with employers in the business and technical fields.
The Career Fair is just one of the many services offered by the Career Center in order to help students find employment. Their website features a number of links for help on résumés, assistance finding employers and help for students trying to decide what profession they want to pursue. There are sample résumés and cover letters, job listings, as well as online workshops and helpful videos. The Career Center even has a Facebook page and an SMS text-messaging service to notify job-searching students about employment opportunities related to their interests.
The Career Center also offers career-counseling appointments for students. On their website, they offer both 15 minute drop-in appointments and individual career appointments. According to the web page, the drop-in appointments offer students the chance to become familiar with the career center or revise and refine their résumés, while the longer and more in-depth career counseling appointments allow students to discuss career-related issues with a counselor from their major.
Some companies even offer on-campus interviews through the career center. On-campus interviews are offered each quarter for one month. According to the Career Center's website, most employers offering on-campus interviews are looking for only juniors, seniors or graduate students. This quarter, on campus interviews take place between October 18 and November 19.
Some of the companies at theCareer Fair will be offering on-campus interviews. "It's a nice segue," said Thompson. "Students can apply on BroncoLink, employers then screen the students and invite them to an interview."
A total of 90 companies participated in this quarter's fair. According to the Career Center, about 20 to 30 percent of them were non-profit or government agencies. There were also a number of technology-related companies. In the past, during the height of the economy, up to 120 companies would attend, but even with only 90 present, there was still quite a crowd. Some students even thought it was a little too tightly packed.
The career fairs work in conjunction with Santa Clara's online job-search tool, BroncoLink. On BroncoLink, students can search through employers in attendance at the Career Fair, as well as jobs available on campus and other employment opportunities. BroncoLink also provides a news feed to keep students informed about different events around campus that have to do with employment.
Events like the Career Fair are more helpful than simply using BroncoLink however, because they provide a chance to make a connection with recruiters. According to Thompson, 80 percent of jobs are found by word of mouth.
"The Career Fair gives students an opportunity to meet face-to-face with recruiters," said Thompson, and this gives them an opportunity to make an impression so the recruiter remembers them when they're reading résumés.
Contact Matt Rupel at mrupel@scu.edu or (408) 554-4849.