Business student Lauren Vandertoolen recently attended the Spring Career Fair in the Union Ballroom. This is what she found:
Hundreds of employers lined the Union Ballroom at the recent Spring Career Fair, searching for candidates to hire while even more students walked around the aisles, narrowing down the companies they found most interesting. While the fair seemed intimidating from the outside, talking to employers and students on the inside was an overall pleasant experience.
While wandering the aisles myself, I found most business students flocked around Zions Bank and Zions Bancorporation. This seemed to be not only a popular table, but a well-executed recruiting site. Zions had great visual displays and marketing items along with a substantial amount of recruiters, allowing students to talk with minimal wait time. In observing business students’ interactions, it was clear from the satisfied look on their faces that Zions did a great job promoting their career and internship opportunities.
This year Google made its first appearance on campus, causing a large line to wrap around the aisles surrounding their corner table. Google attracted not only business majors, but engineering majors, communications majors, economics majors, you name it. However, despite their obvious presence, it seemed that they might not have been expecting all the attention they got from students at the fair. While other employers had large visual displays and clean tables, Google had a cardboard box and one recruiter to cater to the hundreds of interested students. Despite their less-than-appealing display, students continued to wait in the long line to get their shot at a conversation with the multi-billion-dollar company.
After walking around observing other students, I decided to talk to employers for myself. What I found was that they were equally excited to talk to me, if not more so, as I was to meet them. Expecting to deliver an elevator pitch and really sell myself, I found the employers trying to sell me their companies.
This was refreshing, as the conversation easily flowed without me feeling the pressure of delivering an elevator pitch on the spot. Rather than listing accomplishments, it was easy to insert my resumé into conversation naturally, which allowed me to build more of a relationship with potential employers.
Overall, the 2014 Career Fair was a wonderful opportunity to look at various employers and realize what company fits your interests. A major takeaway from the fair was realizing that employers are looking for you just as much as you are for them.
Finding a company where you can communicate easily and feel comfortable allows finding that fit to be an easier feat.