Fall is coming and for graduating seniors, this means job-hunting season.
This Tuesday, Sept. 23, Career Services will be hosting a fair for science and engineering students and on Sept. 30 there will be a general career fair for all majors.
Sara Jarman, career fair coordinator, said most U students don’t know the resources available to them.
“Last fall we got 1,300 students, which is great number, but there are 30,000 students on campus,” Jarman said.
Jarman said the fairs could be beneficial to all students, even if they aren’t looking for immediate employment.
“It’s about putting students together with employers,” Jarman said. “It’s a really good opportunity — even if they don’t get a job — just to network and to get to know the industry. And it’s here on campus so we make it easy for them.”
Lauryn Cash, a sophomore in biology, said she feels she’s not doing enough to make those big connections.
“I’m aware of some of the resources, but I’m not too familiar with them,” Cash said. “I don’t really know exactly where to go or who to talk to, but I know there’s more that I can do and more that I want to do.”
Career Services has also collaborated with different departments on campus.
“We set up staff assigned to work with specific colleges and we’re working hard to create good relationships closer to the students,” Jarman said.
Beyond career fairs, Jarman noted there are graduate expos for graduate students where workshops are available for different fields of study. Jarman also said students can check out UCareerLink, a database for U students to access job listings.
“It’s incredibly important for students to make these connections,” Jarman said. “College is about achieving bigger and better things, and we just want to make it known to students that we’re here to help.”
Ryan Reynolds, a senior in finance, said having access to different career resources helped him decide what to do post graduation.
“Career fairs especially are a good thing to go to because they set things into reality,” Reynolds said. “They let you see what jobs go to what degrees and show different pathways that might not be so obvious.”
Michael Barton, a senior in exercise sport science and biology, said he thinks career fairs offer many opportunities to undergraduate students.
“I wish I had taken advantage of it even earlier in my undergraduate career,” Barton said.
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