What: Career Fair
When: Wednesday 10 a.m to 3 p.m.
Where: Wilkinson Center Ballroom and Garden Room
Students have often likened the experience of attending a career fair to swimming in a shark tank covered in fish bait.
Why wouldn’t they?
More than 3,000 students are expected to flood the Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom and Garden Room Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to mingle with more than 129 employers in hopes of landing internships or full-time positions.
McKenzie Lawyer Davies who manages the career fair said that the career fair offers opportunities for students to overcome feelings of uneasiness and to better improve their acquired skill set.
Students can gain needed confidence at the fair by professionally presenting themselves to different employers. Cassidy hall, an human relations professional working for Fusion-io praised the students from BYU at last week’s STEM career fair.
“We went to Cal Berkley last week, and we already have double the amount of resumes here in the first two hours,” Hall said.
Another professional working for qualtrics.com of Provo also praised the level of quality from BYU students.
“We love to hire from BYU” said qualtrics hiring manager Kelly Bergeson. “We’ve interviewed many other applicants from other schools, and they just don’t measure up.”
The career fair also offers students opportunities to develop necessary skills, according to Lawyer Davies.
“Career fairs give students the opportunity to network, build a resume, develop their personal brand, master an elevator pitch and learn to sell themselves to employers,” Lawyer Davies said.
According to University Career services, students will get more out of their career fair experience if they know which organizations they want to visit, dress professionally, bring and hand out polished resumes, practice and use an elevator pitch — a 30-second pitch that tells employers why they should be interested in the student — and be ready to take notes and follow up on their experiences at the fair.
Tele-acquisitions manager, Mark Stevens reiterated the importance of being prepared and networking.
“Get connected,” Stevens said. “If I was looking for an internship I would be following people on Facebook and making educated comments. I would follow them on Twitter just so that people started to get to know me.”
Students are not left to deal with the sharks by themselves. University Career Services offer many opportunities to get better prepared for job searching. For more information visit WSC 2410 or .
