Staci DumoskiThe Fall Career Fair, Chapman’s biggest recruiting event of the semester, with 85 registered employers, brought recruiters to campus in search of the next generation of talent. Among the employers that attended were: The Walt Disney Company, Enterprise Mobility, City of Orange, A-Tech Consulting and Orange County Public Defender’s Office. The event gives students and alumni a leg up in their job search, offering the chance to network directly with recruiters, explore job and internship opportunities and build crucial job search and networking skills that will aid them throughout their careers.
Job seekers who attended the career fair welcomed the opportunity to interact face-to-face with potential employers, whether they were looking for internships in the coming year or ready to seek full-time, post-graduation employment.
“Being able to be face to face with [recruiters] and put a name to a face…it’s a lot better than being online solely, and I think it’ll help me a lot in this process,” said Devin Cobb, a senior business administration major.
Exploring Career Opportunities
While Cobb had specific companies he wanted to meet with during the event, he appreciated the chance to talk with recruiters from other organizations as well. “It gives me an opportunity to not only explore what I want to do, but to explore other options as well.”
Maylissa Shaw, a junior creative writing major who is considering a law career, found the event helped widen her network in the field she wants to go into. “It helps to know that there are so many different opportunities. And it also helps to get involved and see the process,” she said.
She added that the career fair networking tips provided by the Career and Professional Development team provided specific questions to ask when speaking to employers, which made starting conversations even easier for a first-time career fair attendee.
“Career fairs are a wonderful opportunity to meet a variety of employers from different industries in a short span of time, so students need to stay open-minded as they explore the employers that they want to meet,” said Jennifer Kim, associate vice president, Career and Professional Development at Chapman. “Many of these employers have brought their interns and full-time employees who are current or former students who found their jobs at this very career fair, and that is success.”
A Competitive Edge in the Job Market
Christina Higgins is the early career programs manager at Ingram Micro, one of Chapman’s Top Employers. She had several current student and alumni employees helping at the fair and is looking forward to hiring more in the coming months.
“Chapman really does such a great job of preparing them for the real world,” she said, “giving them the coursework, the extracurricular activities [and] the projects that they can get involved with. That’s preparing them for corporations like ours, and we’re really seeing the value of that when they are coming to intern with us or work in our early career programs.”
For employers, the advantage of a career fair is being able to connect with a wide range of potential applicants.
“Our goal is to really build a long-term pipeline,” said Trinity Dubriel, talent acquisition partner for Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). “We love looking at college students to see what they’re interested in, get them into our internships and our part-time positions. And then we would love to see if they’ll be able to move within CHOC. They have long-term goals, and we want to meet them where they are and help them develop.”
Helping Students Find Their Future
Andrew Brook, a senior business finance major, enjoyed the career fair experience, stating that he’d come to “make some new connections, practice my people skills, talk to employers, just trying to find some new opportunities.”
He added, “I think it’s great that Chapman gets a bunch of different employers out here from all different industries, and to give Chapman students an opportunity to see what the future’s like.”
Attending recruiting events will help job seekers in their career journeys in any labor market. “You cannot control the job market, but you can control how prepared you are for your job search, including targeting the industries and employers that are hiring, tailoring your application materials for each employer and practicing your interview skills to impress them,” said Kim.
The Fall Career Fair is just one of many recruiting events open to students and alumni during the academic year. To learn about other recruiting opportunities, including the Fall Career Networking Night on Oct. 22, visit the Career and Professional Development’s recruiting events page
