More than 130 organizations filled Shippensburg University’s ShipRec on Thursday afternoon to speak with undergraduate and graduate students about internships and job opportunities at the fall Career Fair.
Students were greeted at the door by signing in, creating a name tag and downloading the fall Career Fair app. There was also a LinkedIn photo booth for students to have professional photos taken of themselves.
The Career Fair was hosted by SU’s Career and Community Engagement Center (CCEC).
A unique addition to this year’s fair is the app. Associate CCEC Director Sarah Shupp met Paul Stierer, one of the creators of the app, at the Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers Conference. Stierer was approached by a college looking to do more than just telling students to bring multiple copies of their résumé to a career fair.
The app is operated by the company Know Careers and is a free, cloud-based career fair platform. Students can upload resumes, find out more about employers that will be at the career fair and view a virtual map of the fair. There are about 15 colleges using the app, but about 20 to 80 more will be using it in the spring, according to Stierer.
“There are a number of companies charging an arm and a leg to do what we’re doing,” Stierer said. “We’re about higher education.”
SU junior Taylor Sieg downloaded the app before she came to the fair and uploaded her resume. Sieg was looking for an internship in marketing and talked to a few organizations at the fair.
“I think getting your foot in the door with an internship is the best thing you can do,” Sieg said.
SU alumna Sarah Hunt attended the fair in search of a job relating to data analysis or business. Before attending, she had in mind a few organizations she wanted to talk to, but talked to more once she got to the fair.
“It was good to talk to [the organizations] and get my résumé in there,” Hunt said.
The CCEC also hosts a spring Career Fair, and this year it held an on-campus and part-time job fair.
The CCEC advertises the fairs on its online database of 2,000 employers that show interest in Shippensburg. There are also many alumni recruiters who participate in the fair.
After the fair, students are encouraged to take a survey and are asked what employers they would like to see at the next career fair, influencing the organizations that are invited, according to Shupp.
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