Wednesday, October 7, 2015 // The Statement
4B
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 // The Statement
5B
S
tudents clad in finely pressed black suits and
professional dresses walked briskly around the
Michigan Union at the first day of the Career
Center’s annual Fall Career Expo Tuesday.
About
1,600
students,
wearing
their
most
impressive attire, fill nearly every room of the Union.
Walking through the lobby, groups can be heard
chatting about their previous internship experience
and their job goals for next summer.
Among them, Business junior Kristin Green sat on
a bench outside the reading room.
“I am building up my confidence to talk to
companies for tomorrow so I just walked around,” she
said, herself wearing a white dress and heels.
The Business School hosts daily recruiting events
on campus. But Green doesn’t see herself working
at one of the companies that most eagerly recruit
students on campus. She says she would feel lost at a
large corporation.
Most rooms were packed with students who
were both nervous and eager for their turn to try
impressing a recruiter, with some long lines spilling
into the hallways. Many students not waiting in line
were either leaned against a wall scribbling down
notes or slipping their feet out of flip flops and into
black heels.
“Were you planning on talking to recruiters
today?” I asked Green.
“I was thinking about it,” she laughed in response.
“But, I don’t know… I’m just working on my confidence.
I got all dressed up — it took me a while — but I don’t
know. I just wanted to scope things out … Tomorrow
there are a lot more (companies) on my list.”
***
Though the semester has just begun, students are
already under the gun to land a “perfect” summer
internship or, if graduating, an elusive, full-time job
offer.
That’s where the Expo comes in.
The event, which has been in the works for the
past two years, features 185 organizations — about 29
more than last year — with 90 companies recruiting
on Tuesday and 95 different companies today. Many
of the participating organizations return to campus
after the two-day event or stay for an interview day
on Thursday.
For students hoping to secure a job or internship,
the Fall Expo is one of the Career Center’s biggest
events to get students to connect with recruiters. Last
year about 25,000 students attended the Expo, and
according to Career Center director Karin Borland,
attendance has increased each year by about 500
students.
While various organizations host other specialized
career fairs throughout the year, the Career Center
says it gears its Expo to all University students
regardless of year or major. Sally Schueneman, the
Career Center’s career events manager, notes about
85 percent of this year’s visiting organizations are
open to all majors.
But that message may be lost on some, as student
organizations and University offices outside of LSA —
specifically the Engineering and Business schools —
have developed specialized resources for career and
internship guidance.
***
Ever since Engineering junior Ted Xiao spent
this past summer interning at Optimal CAE Inc., an
automotive supplier, he has been actively trying to
meet recruiters and network a new opportunity for
next summer.
Since classes began the first week of September, he
and his classmates have had constant recruiting and
information sessions, many of which entice students
with food in addition to the networking opportunity.
Though Xiao said he has so far only attended around
five information sessions, he said many students
attend at least two a day.
“If you play your cards right you don’t have to pay
for food for like three weeks,” Xiao said, referencing
the number of midday and evening events offered.
While the Career Center Expo hosts companies
offering some positions for students pursuing
engineering jobs, many engineering students instead
focus their energy the Engineering Career Fair, which
was held on North Campus last Monday and Tuesday.
The engineering fair, hosted annually since 1986
by the Society of Women Engineers and Tau Beta Pi,
the National Engineering Honor Society, boasts that
it is the University’s largest career fair. With 340
companies and over 4,200 students in attendance, the
student-run event took over almost every engineering
building. (Though it should also be noted that some of
the participating companies at the engineering career
fair make a second appearance at the Fall Expo.)
Engineering professors are aware of the all-day,
two-day fair and understand that many students may
not be in class. Almost everyone wears a suit, many
with a pin indicating the wearer’s major on the lapel.
“Homework this week is kind of out the window,”
Xiao said. “It’s only a few days so it’s not going to kill
you ... for the most part.”
Engineering junior Eddie Godbold attended both
events — the engineering fair and the Fall Expo.
Though he said there were more opportunities for
engineering students at last week’s fair, the Expo
allowed him make a second impression at some of his
favorite organizations.
“The only reason I really came is because I’m
considering maybe an opportunity outside of just
purely engineering and there’s a couple companies
here that were at both,” Goldbold said. “I just wanted
to follow up and show that I’m very interested in their
companies.”
***
With so many companies and so many students
waiting in line for their turn to impress a recruiter,
students know they must come armed with their
resume, an “elevator pitch” and a strategy. Research
and preparation on the companies they plan to
approach are key.
Four days before the Career Center hosted the Fall
Expo, it offered the “Great Expo-Prep-Tacular,” an
all-day opportunity for students to prepare for the
career fair with drop-in career advising and mini
clinics. Additional events were offered in the weeks
prior.
The Career Center hosted a similar program last
year. This year, in addition to featuring staple events
focusing on what to expect at the career fair and how
to speak and follow up with employers, the program
included a session focused on freshman opportunities
at the fair.
Tyler
Wang,
a
Career
Center
recruitment
coordinator, led a clinic advising students the best
ways to speak with recruiters.
“Students really want a prescription for how to be
successful,” she said. “They want to know, ‘What do I
say? How much time do I have to say it and how many
people should I talk to?’ ”
“Really the advice we give is that there’s not just
one cookie cutter way to be successful at the career
fair,” she said. “What we want is for students to be
able to make a genuine connection with an employer
and be able to take that connection to the next level by
getting an internship or a job.”
LSA senior Ali Miesel said she found the pre-Expo
preparation extremely helpful. She hoped to take
advantage of the opportunities provided to get an
interview.
“I definitely have a lot of preparation to do (before
the Expo) but coming here gave me ideas on how to do
that,” Miesel said on Friday.
In addition to the prep day, the Career Center
hosted another event Monday evening for students to
ask additional questions and meet alumni returning
as recruiters in a more informal “speed-networking”
styled setting.
“Our goal is to help students be successful,” Wang
said. “If students are looking for an internship or a job
or if they’re just trying to figure out what they want to
do with their lives, we want to provide them with all
the tools and resources necessary to help accomplish
that goal. That’s really our job: to help students.”
***
Borland said she thinks the Expo has a reputation
for
featuring
many
corporate
opportunities.
However, she emphasized that there are a wide
range of jobs, including opportunities in investment
banking, consulting, marketing, HR and at large
corporations, as well as opportunities to work at non-
profit organizations and government agencies.
“There are what I call the hidden gems,” Borland
said.
Though Public Policy junior Heidi Payter spent her
time at the Expo talking to two organizations, she
said she didn’t feel like there were many participating
companies that met her interests.
“They do a lot of stuff at Ford and I feel like they
help me more than this did, but it was still useful.”
Payter said. “I used it for practice so when I have to
do one for a scary business that I really want to work
at, then I’m ready.”
For students who may not find their interests
represented at the Expo, Borland said not every
career industry lends itself to the career fair set up.
“It really reflects how different career fields do
their recruiting,” Borland said.
Since the Expo is considered a first step in the
internship process, the Career Center does not have
data determining how many students are eventually
able to procure an internship through connections
made at the career fair.
However, Schueneman said the center does try to
keep tabs on where graduating seniors first end up
after college. She said about 93 percent of students
end up at either their first choice of job or graduate
school post-graduation.
By Emilie Plesset, Senior News Editor
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