Students and Business Professionals Mingle at Career Fair

On Wednesday, Oct. 5 Santa Clara University hosted its annual fall career fair that gave hundreds of Santa Clara students the chance to interact with local companies, pass their resumes out, and hopefully have at least one of their encounters turn into an interview or future internship or job opportunity.

Students from all majors were invited to the event and given certain key pieces of advice beforehand.

Enough employers were in attendance that the Career Center advised students to bring at least 20 copies of their resume and to do enough basic research that they at least knew about the companies they planned on talking to.

Sophomore Adan Rivera, who works for the Career Center, said that they invited all companies who previously attended and are constantly in contact with new companies who are interested in having a presence at the fair.

Career Center Assistant Director Elizabeth Thompson said that approximately 25 percent of the companies at this year's career fair were new.

The Career Center also provided other advice that's useful whether or not you attended the fair. As part of the further preparation before the event, the Center suggested composing a short — around 30 seconds — "elevator speech" that's intended to pass along vital information, like "who you are," "what have you done" and "what do you have to offer."

Hundreds of students prepared their information and attended this year's event over the three hours the businesses were in attendance. The event was previously planned for the Kenna Lawn, but was moved to the Malley Fitness Center due to the weather.

At least one student liked the unexpected change; Sophomore J.P. Allport said that he remembered Preview Days in the facility and that the university needs to "make sure they keep it here."

Junior Timothy John Sturm attended the event last year and returned this year. "I wasn't really sure what the whole fair would be about last year... I went in a little blind, and gave my resume to three companies, with one following up later." said Sturm.

"(This year) I was looking around for green jobs and other ways to connect. The brochure with the full list of companies was definitely helpful."

Aside from those "green companies" this year, over 150 businesses were in attendance at the 2011 Fall Career Fair, a turnout that Career Center Director Elspeth Rossetti called the "biggest since before the recession." She said that the fair was "really good news for the class of 2012."

Contact James Hill III at jhill@scu.edu or (408) 554-1918.