Career Fair Keepsake..... Again!

It's Wednesday, and here we are in the calm after the storm (it's raining) of yesterday's All Majors Career Fair. Well, it wasn't much of a storm, but I suppose the table arrangement resembled a cyclone. That isn't to say this career fair wasn't exciting, though!

I helped set up again this time, and before I started I was expecting the worst. Jan mentioned that she couldn't get us table cloths, and that we were using the paper again. It only took me a second to remember that we trashed the ones we used in the fall career fair, but I still wasn't quite enthused. When we started, though, hope filled my heart as I saw the box was unopened! We were using brand-new paper table covers! Not entirely satisfied, I looked to the bright side - there weren't any holes, but we still had to deal with ugly creases. Amy, my new coworker helped get them all set up. Most, if not all, of the companies brought their own table covers... so at least I didn't have to look at the creases the whole time.

Something I was really excited about was that Justin from Zumeo would be at the Career Fair giving people the run-down on what Zumeo is, and how it can help them. I don't know when this arrangement was made, but I'm sure Jan had a hand in it. What a great idea! I think Zumeo is way cool, and that we really need to start promoting it hard. So this is a great start.

Fast-forward to just before lunch. I guess, while I was away running an errand, that Amy and Alicia decided I'd get lunch first. I guess Alicia thought I missed lunch last time because of her. I just didn't feel like eating lunch. I heard that this time they were going to serve lasagna, which didn't sound great for lunch... and so I skipped it again.

I had a chance, after that, to chat with Justin. He and I have been in contact quite a bit trying to get things going for Zumeo and OIT, and so it was nice to meet him in person. At least now I know he's real. Actually, he told me about some of the cool stuff that's lined up for Zumeo in the future, as well as their new attitude for marketing and such. These are good times for Zumeo, and hopefully OIT can help! I promised him I'd do my best to send people his way if they missed him on the way in. He was set up at the side of the hallway without a massive sign for people to see, so people did miss him... a lot.

There isn't much else to write about that I didn't write about last time, so I'll jump right to my impression of this term's career fair. The first thing I should bring up is that student turnout was dismal. While talking to a couple of my friends who seemed rather unprepared, I found that a lot of them had heard about the career fair less than a week ahead of time. I wonder how this sort of issue comes about. Maybe we need to look into our promotion plans for the next career fair, so we can get more attending students AND hopefully much more faculty support.

I can't really comment on how students were dressed. I was a bit too busy sending them over to Justin to talk about Zumeo, so I paid little attention to attire. I definitely saw someone in a kilt, however. Not sure a lot of companies will hire him on the spot for that, but maybe it hit home with some of the recruiters on a personal level.

I took a photo of Jan holding a baby.

A lot of students I talked to seemed disappointed in how few companies were represented this time. But when I looked at our list of companies, I saw at least five companies that I haven't been here before. How reassuring is this! We can attribute the smaller company attendance to rough economical times, but at least five new companies are interested enough in OIT to send representatives down here! That's amazing, I think.

It was also pretty nice to see Sky Lakes Medical Center and Asante Health System out there supporting our medical students (and some other majors). Not a whole lot of medical students see any benefit in coming to our career fairs, mainly because the externship system gives them a strong headstart at a particular venue, but also because there are so few companies attending our career fair to give them more options. Hopefully we'll see an upswing in medicine-related companies at our career fairs in the future!

I also spent some time chatting with the guys from Kinetics. From a personal standpoint, I think what they do at Kinetics is fascinating. It almost makes me wish I had chosen one of the majors they're interested in... almost.

As usual, there was a lot of great SWAG to grab up. Pacificorp brought some sweet wind-up dancing dudes, Asante had some colorful shopping bags that folded into a small pouch. GE was handing out the same awesome frisbees they brought in the fall, and I saw Nor-Cal Products had job applications available on the spot. A couple companies even brought candy. I made sure to visit them.

Overall, I'd say this career fair was successful. I've only seen once of the employer evaluations that was returned, and it looks like one of our students secured a job offer already. Congratulations to whoever that is! Hopefully we'll see everyone back next year!

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