With over 100 different employers present, the main ballroom of the Student Union was packed with tables for the Career and Internship Fair on Sept. 20, 2022, from 9 a.m to 2 p.m.
The event was for non-STEM-related employers, with representatives from big companies like PepsiCo to local municipalities such as the Salt Lake City School District. Whether a student was interested in working within a nonprofit, government, healthcare or corporate environment, there were employers there eager to talk to prospective employees.
The fair was put on by the Career and Professional Development Center, an organization on campus set up to help students pursue their professional goals. They put on events such as the Career and Internship Fair frequently throughout the semester to help people get connected to various opportunities and to assist in developing students’ networks.
“Because networking is like the number one way to find a job, this is a great way to get connected with employers face to face,” said Mary Arola, assistant director of marketing and communications for the center. “This is a great way to get some face to face interaction and some real-time feedback from employers.”
At first, the event was very overwhelming for Lauren Nusbaum, an undeclared second-year student at the U. She said it was loud and boisterous but after talking to the people at the Career and Professional Development Center, she was ready to talk to employers.
“I have family that talk about the students’ opportunities in the future, how you need to put yourself out there, and I even have friends right now speaking about, “oh, I need to find a job,” Nusbaum said. “And then stuff like this pops up at school … [which] makes things so convenient and a bit stress-free to find new opportunities.”
Prior to attending the event, Arola advocated that students use one of the tools that the Career and Professional Development Center provides called Handshake, a platform that connects students to advisors through the center, acts as a job board, and allows people to keep up to date on future events put on by the center.
“Handshake allowed students to view all of the employers that were going to be there before the event itself and search by job positions and interests,” Arola said. “You can click into some of the job descriptions [to] learn a little bit more. You can learn a little bit about their values, their mission.”
The Career and Professional Development Center puts on many of these events to help people get connected with a variety of future employers. While this event focused specifically on non-STEM-related positions, coming up is the Power and Energy Career Expo on Monday, Sept. 26 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and a STEM Internship & Career Fair on Tuesday, Sept. 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Both of these events are also in the Union ballroom.
You can find out more details about all the fairs and expos the Career and Professional Development Center is holding this semester on their website.
Going forward after that there are many other opportunities put on by the Career and Professional Development Center such as a nonprofit career fair and virtual career fairs.
“I wish I could tell all my friends to come here right now,” Nusbaum said. “This is a good way for our tuition money to get [used] honestly.”