CareerFest gives students opportunity to connect with employers, internships

(Featured image via ofic.org)

CareerFest is something that can help give students the opportunity to connect with possible employers and figure out what companies are offering internships and jobs in the fields that they want to go into. 

Seeing that finding a career is largely the point of going to college, it makes sense that an event like this would be put together. In addition to Capital, there were other universities attending as well, such as Baldwin Wallace, Kenyon College, and Ohio Dominican University. 

CareerFest was virtual this year, as is everything, and the experience went rather smoothly. The first step was to sign up for group sessions, individual one-on-one sessions, or a combination of the two. 

The variety of employers and graduate schools was much larger than I was expecting. Nearly nine pages sessions to sign up for were free for the picking to students. Among them were several insurance companies, government agencies, like the Auditor of State, as well as social organizations like 1st Day School Supplies and Boy Scouts of America. 

Keenan Russell, a senior majoring in sociology and criminology, said, “I felt there was a wide range of employers/grad schools. I had a busy morning that day and I couldn’t get to every session that interested me, but I felt there was good variety. From local employers to big companies, full-time to part time, etc. There was probably something for everyone.”

This was surprisingly simple, as the Handshake platform is easy to use and Career Development sent out emails with links to videos walking students through the process. 

The actual event of CareerFest went much the same, with staff members from Career Development answering emails and offering in-person assistance in the Bridge of Learning and virtually over Zoom. Both were set up in 10-minute intervals on a first-come-first-serve basis.

However, and this is more than likely an isolated experience, I was scheduled to attend a group session at 10 a.m. with Media-Com, Inc., and nobody showed up. I was scheduled for another group session immediately after with them at 10:30 a.m., which began with several minutes of waiting for the host to arrive. Eventually, they did though, and the meeting went as normal as every other meeting. 

Apparently, there were some technical issues, which means only so much blame can be placed on them, as we have all experienced those in spades over the last year. 

After that, the event went as planned. My other meetings with Hagerty and BMW Financial Services went smoothly and provided me with wonderful insight into the industries and specific companies. 

Tara Zinser, a senior majoring in emerging media with a marketing focus, said, “I honestly preferred the one-on-one experience in a chat room versus the in-person experience. At traditional career fairs, it’s never guaranteed that you’ll get face time with the recruiter you’re trying to talk to. This experience was very personal.”

CareerFest had a lot of preparation put into it judging by the emails sent out by Career Development, which contained instructional videos as well as what students needed to have with them when attending the sessions, such as an updated resume.