Graduating seniors facing fierce competition for jobs may be able to get ahead of the pack by attending a job fair.
Various university departments in conjunction with the Career Center will be hosting job fairs this semester for everything from accounting to broadcasting to creative arts to help students feel out the job market and to prepare them for job hunting, before they graduate.
Roxana Alegre, a receptionist at the Career Center, said that job fairs are a way to help students look for a job without having to go off campus.
"It's just an easier way to do it," Alegre said. "Sometimes students find it hard to go out and look. They get scared."
This semester the Career Center will help coordinate job fairs weekly, beginning with an accounting fair on Sept. 18, so that students who are going to graduate or attend graduate school can begin researching their options.
Alberto Olivares, a counselor at the Career Center believes that first impressions are important.
"Whether it's at a job fair or an interview outside, first impressions are very important," Olivares said, adding that a person should present themselves in a professional manner.
According to Olivares, professional dress for men means wearing either slacks or a suit, with a nice shirt and a tie. He added that women should wear either a nice dress or a suit.
It is important for a student who is attending a job fair at the university to not only dress well, Olivares said, but to also have a resume ready to distribute and to do research on the company they are interested in interviewing with.
"They're always going to ask you why you want to work for the company and you better know something about it," Olivares said.
Not everyone must go to a job fair to find a job. Education department Associate Dean Vera Layne said that students have a less formalized ways of finding jobs.
"Students find a place to observe," said Layne.
She added that students majoring in education usually know someone teaching and that they use their connections to get observation hours, which can lead to job offers.
Job fair participants range from local employers to international companies, depending on which department is organizing the event.
The engineering job fair attracts companies like Hitachi, Sony, Hewlett Packard and AT&T, who are interested in hiring engineering students of various concentrations for internships.
Marco Carrillo, a member of the Society of Hispanic Engineers, said that the engineering fairs involve interviewing for an internship that may eventually lead to a job.
"Recruiters don't just interview you for a job," Carrillo, a senior in electrical engineering, said. "It's a process you go through to get a job."
SF State's Career Center has a research library that provides information on the dates of scheduled job fairs and resume writing, interviewing and company backgrounds. The library is open to all SF State students and alumni.
Upcoming job fairs include:
-Sept. 18, accounting.
-Oct. 7, graduate school fair.
-Oct. 15, creative arts career day.
-Oct. 24, engineering fair.
-Nov. 4, broadcasting and electronic communication arts.
-Nov. 15, journalism job fair.
-Nov. 20, teachers career day.
[ Golden Gater Online September 10, 1996 ]
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Formatted by Steve Thoemke (sthoemke@nermal.santarosa.edu )