2008 Woodie Awards
A Career Fair is not enough for all
Aaron Fetterman
Issue date: 1/28/08 Section: Opinion
This year's Career Fair has been much the same as every semester's: the same companies, same people, same opportunities. The Career Fair does a few things well: it meets the interests of some great companies. It gives students an event to prepare for and a deadline to get them motivated. It helps build relationships between the school and companies, which is invaluable for jobs. It gets companies up to Clarkson, which means that people can do more interviews.
Despite all efforts, though, it doesn't serve everyone. For a few select majors, there are many opportunities. For the smaller majors, there is almost nothing. Recently, the Career Center has worked harder to bring a broader range of companies to the Career Fair. One or two companies are better than none, but they hardly make the Career Fair the event that it is for mechanical or chemical engineers.
The Career Fair isn't the only way to get a job or an internship, but it seems like it is a huge focus for our Career Center. It makes the entire process easier, and that means that more students get internships and co-ops and jobs.
There should be something that makes going out to get jobs or internships just as easy: an event that gives students motivation to meet the deadline, and has the aid of the Career Center to make it easy enough that every student will use it. It could have advice on writing cover letters, identifying the companies that most closely match students' interests, what students should expect, and methods to get companies to pay attention to your resume even if they've never met you.
If it was a day-long event that students could drop in on for as long as they wanted to, much like the Career Fair, then I think it would succeed, and it would help Clarkson build ties out to new companies. It would also mean that students who aren't served well by the Career Fair feel support instead of being on their own.
Despite all efforts, though, it doesn't serve everyone. For a few select majors, there are many opportunities. For the smaller majors, there is almost nothing. Recently, the Career Center has worked harder to bring a broader range of companies to the Career Fair. One or two companies are better than none, but they hardly make the Career Fair the event that it is for mechanical or chemical engineers.
The Career Fair isn't the only way to get a job or an internship, but it seems like it is a huge focus for our Career Center. It makes the entire process easier, and that means that more students get internships and co-ops and jobs.
There should be something that makes going out to get jobs or internships just as easy: an event that gives students motivation to meet the deadline, and has the aid of the Career Center to make it easy enough that every student will use it. It could have advice on writing cover letters, identifying the companies that most closely match students' interests, what students should expect, and methods to get companies to pay attention to your resume even if they've never met you.
If it was a day-long event that students could drop in on for as long as they wanted to, much like the Career Fair, then I think it would succeed, and it would help Clarkson build ties out to new companies. It would also mean that students who aren't served well by the Career Fair feel support instead of being on their own.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
Jaclyn Abrams
posted 1/29/08 @ 9:37 AM EST
Well said. I never liked the career fairs, nor the career center. They put me down when I said I wanted to go into Publishing and they replied back with, "you need more experience. (Continued…)
Christopher
posted 2/04/08 @ 11:14 PM EST
What some students on campus fail to realize is that, YES, you can actually go out on your own and find yourself a job. If you have a major that is under-serviced by the career fair, you should know well enough in advance that you will have to work harder than others to find a job or internship. (Continued…)
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