Katie Samek-
Career Development Services would like to announce not one but two events coming up for career-seeking students to attend! The first of these events is the Fall Recruiting Fair, a solution for students seeking employment with companies that may already have closed their applications by the time the long-running Recruitment Fair in the spring rolls around. The second event is the Career Expo, a joint effort with the Gustavus Alumni Board which provides students the opportunity to share their career experiences with their peers and talk with alumni about the countless job, internship, and volunteer experiences that the Gustavus community has to offer.
The Fall Recruiting Fair will be held on Tuesday, September 26th at the Minneapolis Convention Center from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Gustavus will be providing limited transportation via bus to and from the event, which interested students can sign up for in one of two ways. To register via Handshake, students must first log in, and then go to the “Events” tab and search for “Fall Recruiting Fair”. Otherwise, students can email cfavre@gustavus.com to register for the event.
Several vendors from Minnesota and across the country will be in attendance, with many of them being from Fortune 500 companies. In particular, the vendors at this event will be looking for students interested in the following career fields: finance, accounting, data analysis, consulting, technology, statistics, and marketing and communications. However, students from all disciplines are encouraged to attend this event. Of special note for this event is that not just current Gustavus students can attend. Gustavus alumni who graduated in May of 2023 are also invited to attend the event, following the registration guidelines listed above.
This event is a large convention hosted by the Minnesota Private College Career Consortium, a collaboration between the 18 private colleges in Minnesota and several Fortune 500 companies across the country that allow students to connect with employers interested in hiring them, both as potential interns and as permanent employees after college. This event offers exclusive attendance to members of this organization, meaning that this event is not open to the general public and therefore a special opportunity for Gustavus students to attend.
“This will be a traditional career/internship fair, meaning that candidates will want to bring hard copies of their resumes and be prepared to introduce themselves to employers,” said Director of Vocation and Career Readiness Programs Cynthia Favre. “Employers attending are actively searching for candidates, so it is a great idea for candidates attending to research the employers and be ready to apply. There may be some on-site interviewing as well, so be prepared.”
Formerly held only in the spring, the Recruiting Fair is a long-running tradition, with Gustavus participating for over 40 years. However, it was observed in previous years that many companies that Gustavus graduates were interested in working for had already closed their job and internship applications before the spring Recruitment Fair rolled around, effectively cutting off a section of interested potential hires. Therefore, by hosting a “second” Recruitment Fair in the fall alongside the original spring event, students will now be able to interact with several of these businesses and apply before these earlier deadlines close.
“The best reason I can give for a student seeking a career to go to this event is that it gives you a deadline,” said Favre. “For students afraid of missing deadlines to apply for jobs and internships, events like this allow students to learn employers’ deadlines and what they’re looking for in applicants so that you can plan ahead when preparing to submit your applications.”
The Career Expo will be held on Friday, September 22nd from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the upper hallway of the Jackson Campus Center. Students interested in presenting their experiences at this event should email cfavre@gustavus.edu for more information.
The primary draw of this event is the student presenters, each of whom will have either a physical display or a slideshow presentation detailing their experience with a job, internship, volunteer experience, or any other relevant career they have participated in to share with their student peers. There will also be Gustavus alumni present to give presentations about their own experiences, as well as provide resources for students interested in pursuing similar careers. All students who present at this event will be entered into a drawing for cash prizes, with the grand prize being $200.
While primarily a student-run event, this year the Career Development Center has partnered with the Gustavus Alumni Board to bring in alumni speakers to share their own career experiences with the student body alongside the current student presenters. This event is one of the newer events hosted by the Career Development Center, starting in 2019 and hosting online sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic over Zoom.
“Career stuff is scary, and it can be terrifying for students to put themselves out there and hunt for a new job when so much of their life is uncertain,” said Favre. “But every time you go to an event like the Recruitment Fair or the Career Expo, it gets easier to talk about your own career experiences and interact with potential employers. It’s a series of valuable learning experiences that can be carried not just beyond graduation, but throughout the rest of your life.”