Career Fair Offers Career Success

By: Anne B. Falcetano
Posted In: News

The Salve Career Fair took place on Wednesday, March 29, one of the first nice days of spring. Outside of Miley Hall, a crowd of freshman were throwing around a Frisbee while others chose to go for a walk on the cliff walk.

It was a day that most college students would hope to skip class and spend the day outside with their friends. This was not the case for over 350 Salve Regina students who sacrificed some of their precious play time outside in shorts to be in the school gym wearing business suits.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) there is an increase in hiring from the 2006 class of college graduates by 14.5 percent, making this the third consecutive year there has been a double digit increase in expected hiring. In the northeast region alone NACE expects a 25.8 percent increase.

Career fairs such as this one at Salve are an untapped resource overlooked by students hoping to land that dream job, post graduation. All across the country colleges and universities attract scores of companies and organizations looking for potential employees, a golden opportunity for college students.

Target, BankNewport, the Hotel Viking and WEEI-FM radio were among the variety of companies that attended Salve Regina’s annual event.

The upsides to browsing a career fair are the number and assortment of companies that are gathered in one location available to students. However, other students find that the number of companies that schools bring to one career fair can be overwhelming.

“Sometimes you can’t take five steps without someone approaching you,” commented Scott Fitzgerald, a junior. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to get the attention in that type of environment but, sometimes it is hard to talk to one company when you know that moments later another is going to jump right on you.”

The University of Missouri’s Business school recommends that students prepare a script to introduce yourself, your education, your interest in the organization, and relates your background to the position(s) in which you are interested. This will help recruiters see that you are focused and determined to present the best candidate you can be.

Students should know that a career fair is an opportunity to walk through the front door. In addition to seniors hoping for entry level positions after graduation, juniors are encouraged to attend in order to track down potential internships.

Andrew Hayes, Promotions and Marketing Director for WEEI-FM radio had a table at the fair and knows first hand that beginning at the bottom is not unusual. He began his career as an intern at WEEI only four years ago.

Many companies will offer both internships and co-ops to attendees. Co-ops are programs which alternate study semesters with paid work semesters in a certain business or industry. They give students a chance to work with a company full time over a longer period of time.

A co-op places a student into a “real” job environment giving them a chance to sink or swim. Internships which may or may not be paid usually last a semester and sometimes take place during colleges’ summer breaks. This is an opportunity for students to work first hand within their career and still receive school credits for their work.

According to jobweb.com, employers look for applicants who have relevant work, internship, or co-op experience. Additionally, some companies prefer to hire interns rather than hiring from the outside, a costly process.

Recruiters are looking for more than a diploma and job experience. They are also interested in a student’s talents and character traits. Communication skills ranked No. 1 followed by qualities such as honesty and adaptability.

“Students are coming out better,” said Andrea M. Sinopoli, Supervisor of Recruiting for Medical Information Technology, Inc. and Salve alumna. Referring to the higher caliber of applicants today she continued, “They have that confidence, if they have that interpersonal skill, being able to communicate why they want to work for Meditech or why they want to work for a certain company.”

Sinopoli thinks that students should have personal drive to get ahead, she also believes ambition should be focused, not simply the drive to get any job after graduation. “To know what you want to do after school, to know what you don’t want to do after school,” said Sinopoli.

At the heart of every career fair are a handful of counselors working in the career development office. These men and women spend their days trying to give students as much assistance as they can to be successful in their chosen field.

At Salve they offer such programs as FOCUS, an online assessment of students’ strengths, weaknesses and interests and how to turn that into a successful career. In addition, the career development office provides video taped mock interviews for students to work from.

At almost every college and university across the country, this employment hub has a number or resources that a lot of students are unaware of. According to NACE over 90 percent of all career counseling offices provide workshops related to the job search, including interview preparation and resume writing.

According to the Salve Regina Career Development web site 91 percent of all graduating seniors acquired jobs after graduation. Of those, 63 percent got jobs related to their major. Sinopoli says that students’ career success may depend on how well they use the resources offered by the career development office and the on-line career services they have access to through their school.

“Overall, starting salary offers rose consistently over this past academic year with the majority of disciplines reporting higher increases this year than they did last year,” says Marilyn Mackes, executive director at the National Association of Colleges and Employers, in a jobweb.com report of the class of 2005. It seems that as the rate of employment grows so do the salary expectations. Additionally, more and more companies are offering signing bonuses as well.

Spending the first beautiful spring day inside the gym, in an uncomfortable suit and speaking to people about your life as a grown up may not sound tempting to a twenty something college student. However, taking the time to pick up a few business cards and drop off a few resumes can result in career success after leaving Salve Regina. Simply ask one of the four Salve alumni that have returned to the event on the other side of the table.