Students Network at Internship Fair

By Summer Meza

As a college student, not many things are more critical to planning a future than finding opportunities for experience and employment. While summer jobs can be great, flipping burgers or babysitting doesn't exactly make for a jaw-dropping resume when it comes to finding a long-term career in your field after graduation. 

That's where internships come in. This past Monday, hundreds of freshmen and sophomores circulated through the California Mission Room in the Benson Memorial Center, meeting and networking with representatives from 70 different companies that were seeking students to fill their collective 150 internship positions.

This event, put on by the Career Center, occurs every quarter, and nearly always is an extremely helpful learning experience for those in attendance. "It was great practice in putting yourself out there," said freshman Andrew Knauer. "This sort of thing makes it that much easier in the future."

Attending events like these can certainly be intimidating, which is why many participants opted to attend the internship fair workshop in addition to the fair itself. The workshop, also organized by the Career Center less than a week before the fair, trained students in how to polish up their resumes and how to make a great first impression in order to make the most of the short time spent meeting each representative. 

The fair also opened eyes to new employers that many had never heard of. "Most of the representatives were from companies I never knew existed," said sophomore Meagan Hardcastle. "It was cool to get a chance to learn from companies I would have never known I had an opportunity to intern at."

Actually getting a position of an intern is only half of what can be learned from attending the fairs put on each quarter. While not every student who came was able to make a substantial connection with any particular company, the exposure to this kind of employment event was a valuable lesson in and of itself. "It was good to be able to gain experience in making the most of a short conversation," said sophomore Taylor Hawes. 

Others echoed this sentiment, or felt that coming as a freshman would make for an even more meaningful experience as a sophomore, with some practice out of the way. 

"Besides just learning about opportunities for myself, I also learned cool facts about companies and got to hear about what working for one was like on a day-to-day basis," said sophomore Joe Beirne. "You don't get that too often," reinforced Hawes. 

Some students didn't feel that the small room for the huge turnout made for a very good setting for making good connections, and some look forward to the next fair as a chance to hear from companies a little more closely related to their major or interests. "I just wanted to get a feel for it as a freshman," said freshman Kaitlin Naidu. Many are hopeful that making themselves available and pursuing opportunities such as these will help them in their future pursuits of internships or careers.