Resources provided for CAS and HSB by Career Development Center

The Career Development Center (CDC) held its spring Career Fair on Feb. 15, with a total of 188 organizations recruiting St. Joe’s students for full time jobs, summer jobs, internships and co-ops.

A total of 855 job-seekers attended the fair, according to Trish Shafer, executive director of the Career Development Center. Eighty percent of those job seekers were Haub School of Business (HSB), 20 percent were College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) students.

“Nobody walks out of the fair with a job, but they walk out with connections and having made an impression with the hope to be invited for a job interview, ” Shafer said.

Almost 80 percent of the organizations at the fair indicated they were looking for HSB majors, 67 percent were looking for CAS majors, and 21 percent were nonprofits or government agencies.

The CAS and HSB employer representation at the Career Fair is thought by some students, mostly those who are in the CAS, to cater more toward students who are in HSB.

“I left with a dissatisfied feeling,” said Georgeann Lombertino ’18, a linguistics major and Spanish and English minor who attended the Career Fair. “I feel like, for a business major, this is like the end all be all. They go in there confident, they know that they have a far better chance there than anyone else if they aren’t business [majors]. You almost feel like the school isn’t attending to you. I felt very pushed to the side. There’s more to the school than just the business school.”

Ruth Zeigler ’20, an international relations major, worked at the Career Fair signing students in. Zeigler said she recognizes the perception that the career fair does not feature more employers for CAS students.

“I do believe that is a thing because I think we are a bit heavier business school-wise,” Zeigler said. “[But] I feel like there are more opportunities for arts and sciences slowly starting to build up, but it is definitely still more business-heavy.”

Shafer said that the career fair is not for everyone, and that it depends on the job seeker.

“It depends on each student’s career goal,” Shafer said. “I think it comes down to what individual students are looking for, both Haub students as well as CAS students.”

Doing research before a career fair is important, according to Shafer, who compares the job search to training for a marathon.

“It’s really about the student, no matter what their major, walking into that event, knowing who they are, knowing what they are looking for, or at the very least exploring,” Shafer said. “If you do the research and say I’m really interested, honestly, that is half the battle.”

Sean Maliga ’18, a double major in international business and leadership, ethics and organizational sustainability (LEO) with a Spanish minor, said he found an internship with Kimberly-Clark through the Career Fair the first time he attended in the fall of 2016, and now has a job set up with Kimberly-Clark for when he graduates.

“I got all of that just because I went to the Career Fair, I applied through the Career Development Center,” Maliga said. “I got my resume checked by them, so without them I definitely wouldn’t have the job I have.”

Shafer said she understands that some job seeking may be more than just having a major that matches a specific job description, like accounting.

“Every job seeker should be [networking], especially in markets and industries where employers don’t go to job fairs or don’t even necessarily post opportunities,” Shafer said. “It’s going to be about LinkedIn and networking.”

According to Shafer, the CDC tries to attract CAS students who are not able to find a job through the career fair through other resources like LinkedIn, SJUConnects, alumni connections, informational interviewing, and events that the CDC holds throughout the semester.

Shafer said she thinks that if students believe that college is the best four years of their life, they don’t want to look to the future. But looking ahead is important.

“Whether you thought about that statement or not, the reality is that the best years of your life are after college,” Shafer said. “College is fun, but the best is yet to come. As soon as you cross the threshold into the Career Development Center or have that conversation out loud that says, ‘I’m going to go after that job,’ you are now kind of accountable to you.”