Students Speak: Career Fair Experiences

Photo by Michael James

This past week, students suited up, readied their resumes and headed to the Career Fair in the hopes of landing internships and full-time positions at hundreds of high-profile companies. In addition to the general Career Fair at the Campus Recreation Center (CRC), different schools also held their own major-specific Career Fairs.

Sanchit Malhotra, a fourth-year CS major, went to the College of Computing (CoC)’s major-specific Career Fair to search for a full-time position.

“Since I’m a CS major, it had a higher ratio of companies I was interested in,” Malhotra said. “There was a greater chance of me finding opportunities since it was more focused, and I didn’t see a point to try out the other one.”

Several freshmen also attended the Career Fairs in the hopes of securing early summer internships. Saurabh Kumar, a first-year CS major, spoke to several companies at the Career Fair.

“It was valuable, especially for the companies that were really interested in your background more than your year,” Kumar said. “It would have been nice to know which companies those were beforehand; I went to several companies that turned me away since they were looking for juniors and seniors specifically.”

Students who attended the general Career Fair used a custom Career Fair app to find the locations of different companies on the CRC floor. Sandra Raye, a second-year IE and PUBP major, used the app to categorize the various companies she was interested in.

“I was able to go to the companies I wanted quickly, and the app made the experienced way more streamlined,” Raye said. “I was able to speak with everyone I wanted to, and I was still able to make it to all of my classes.”

Some students felt that the Career Fairs could do with improvements, both from the companies and from the organizers.

“I wish bigger companies would send more representatives,” Malhotra said.

“The Career Fair app would crash sometimes,” Kumar said. “Also, lines sometimes block people from getting from one place to another, especially in the center area where there are a lot of companies next to each other.”

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