Finance firms, nonprofit organizations and government agencies, among other employers, will come together Thursday as more than 60 employers try to recruit students at Syracuse University’s Career Expo.

The Career Expo, open to students of all majors, will be held Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Schine Student Center’s Goldstein Auditorium. The expo will give employers an opportunity to meet with students searching for summer internships or full-time jobs.

The value of meeting employers at the Career Expo is educational, said Mike Cahill, director of Career Services at SU. Talking to employers helps students explore career paths and gives them a better understanding of what’s out there, Cahill said.

‘It’s almost like shopping,’ Cahill said. ‘The variety of internships and jobs at the Career Expo is like clothing on a rack. You choose what suits you.’

Cahill said students must treat finding an internship as a process from which they can learn more about themselves and what they are looking for in a career.

Researching and learning about a company beforehand can spark a conversation with the employer, Cahill said. But he said it is also important to explain how the employment opportunity fits with a student’s interests.

Companies such as Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are some of the sponsors of the Career Expo that keep returning to participate at the career event, Cahill said. Employers who have been to the expo in the past have been impressed by SU students and have hired some of them, Cahill said.

But some students think the Career Expos are not very useful.

‘In that short time span, they see a couple hundred kids come through,’ said Kelsie Bouchard, a senior entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises and policy studies major. ‘It’s so fast, it’s not the most effective way to communicate with employers.’

Brittany Alex, a senior communication sciences and disorders major, has never been to the Career Expo and said it is not useful for her major.

Said Alex: ‘I feel like it’s more for business people.’

kvdolins@syr.edu

 

 

 

 

Published on February 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm