Jackson Volenee — Reporter
The Career and Professional Development Center held a career fair on Wednesday, Oct. 16 open to all students interested in finding a career either for after graduation in the Adanti Student Center ballroom.
“Each fall and spring semester, the office of Career and Professional Development contacts employers and external organizations to come on campus to recruit students for internships, fulltime opportunities, or anything else they have to offer off campus,” said Kelvin Rutledge, director of the office of professional development.
This is the first fall career fair hosted at Southern in over 10 years; in the past, Southern has only hosted a spring fair. The Career Center plans to continue the trend of hosting fall career fairs for future semesters to come. Local businesses and firms came to the fair, with about 30 different booths open throughout the ballroom. The companies ranged anywhere from Red Bull sales positions to internships with the Yale campus.
This wide array of positions available at the fair catered to a wide group of students who have different interests and needs.
“All career opportunities are meant for all students and all majors. We have some recruiters that are available for all majors, versus other specific firms looking for things like marketing or accounting,” said Rutledge.
Many of the representatives who attended the fair to showcase their company’s open positions to students were alumni of Southern. The connection between current Southern students and the past alumni allows for mutual understanding on both sides.
“We wanted to try and reach out to the [alumni] of Southern because they understand what Southern students are like. You guys work; you guys have classes. They get it,” said associate director Aimee O’Shea.
Some students come across the issue of not being able to land a job they are satisfied with after graduating from college. This is an issue that is a result
of improper career planning and not building a resume off campus in addition to working on a degree. The companies attending the career fair explained this concept to students who showed up to their booths.
“I think it’s an issue that happens more than we’d like it to. It’s hard to know what you want to do in college. Some adults are still figuring it out, but that’s okay,” said Betsy Nuttall, who attended to recruit for Aflac.
In September, there was a parttime job fair hosted at Southern, which focused more on temporary positions that were not necessarily career builders. This career fair, however, is different, as most of the positions here can potentially start a career path.
“It’s more a career and internship oriented fair. The last fair was more geared toward providing students with parttime work,” said O’Shea.
Students who are unsure of what they want to do when they graduate were able to discover several potential career paths at this fair, as well as internship opportunities. Several of the recruiters were able to give advice from their experiences.
“Try to do your research ahead of time and realize that you have a lot to learn when searching for a career. None of us understood it right from the get-go,” said Nuttall. “There’s a learning curve, but the best thing that you can do is start as early as possible.”
