BYU provided networking opportunities for students in search for summer jobs during a summer job fair on Feb. 27.
Chandler Saenz, the event manager for BYU’s Careers and Experiential Learning Office, was in charge of finding companies and setting up the fair.
“Typically for our career fairs we want employers that are offering full time jobs and internships,” Saenz said. “This is the only fair where we allow people to advertise sales positions in the summer or summer seasonal positions.”
Because of this, some students felt a level of support at the fair. Rachel Jensen, a geography major searching for a summer job, shared how it affected her.
“The comforting thing here, is that I know that they are looking for students who want a job,” Jensen said. “They're looking specifically at BYU students. If I were just online trying to find something, they could be hiring from basically anywhere.”
While the summer positions attracted a variety of students to the event, people had contrasting experiences. McKenna Warnick, another fair attendee, said she hadn’t engaged with a lot of the booths because of the job locations.
“I’ve realized a lot of these places take you outside of Utah," Warnick said. "I have my contract and my apartment here and I kind of want to stay in Provo."
On the flip side, Jensen said she was able to find more local jobs at the fair.
“Most of them are here based in Utah which is nice, because then I can stay close to home and have that ease,” Jensen said.
Beyond the diverse perspectives, many students shared anticipation about the potential opportunities the fair offered.
“They were really open to hiring, which I didn't expect,” William Bradford, a pre-business major said. “Online, the application process is really long so here just sped up the whole application process.”
Warnick shared anticipation as she continued her search at the event as well.
“Just seeing all the options makes me feel a little bit better to be like, ‘Wow, there's so many things out there that I could do and so many people that I could connect with,’” Warnick said.