Ryan ChartrandStudents have the opportunity to meet with representatives from over a hundred companies today and tomorrow at the Winter 2009 Job Fair.
The two-day event, which seeks to connect job-seeking students with prospective employers, will be held in the Chumash Auditorium. The open session will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., when students can browse booths and drop off resumes while interview sessions will be held from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The job fair is open to students of all majors and is free to attend.
“This is an excellent opportunity for all students looking for jobs to meet many potential employers, all under one roof,” said Industrial and manufacturing engineering and graduate program coordinator professor Unny Menon.
“(Students) are also able to meet alums and interact with both (human resources) folks, as well as technical managers from companies. Our students really enjoy the career fair for job search and the one-on-one interaction.”
For students, the fair offers an opportunity to see hiring companies and meet a large number of representatives in a short amount of time. For employers, the benefits are just as good.
“For employers, it can be a one-stop kind of thing,” said Career Services Director Martin Shibata. “Over the last five years, employers have shown a preference for the job fair format. They can come in one day, meet students, interview, leave, and have some viable candidates to hire. It’s that versus coming here on campus, setting up a room, building a schedule, interviewing students, coming up the evening before; that sort of thing.”
In the turbulent economic climate, employers are looking for ways to reduce the cost of finding qualified candidates. According to Shibata, effects from the current recession are visible in this year’s turnout.
“We have 135 (participating companies) this year; in the fall we had 185,” he said. “So there has been a drop-off in the number of employers. Because of what happened in the ‘Dot-com’ era, when they were kind of hiring indiscriminately, employers, as a result of that, have been a little more conservative. They’re being a little more careful in their recruitment.”
For example, when seeking interested companies in the fall, Shibata said the fair filled up in just 24 hours.
“A lot has changed in three months,” he said. “For us to get this 135 still took a month and a half of open registration. In the fall we had to turn employers away because we just didn’t have the space. For this fair, we have not turned a single employer away. That is a major difference.”
Shibata said that students should seize this opportunity since another effect of the uncertain economy is a more competitive job market.
Some ways to get ahead of the competition include visiting the Mustang Jobs Web site, from the My Cal Poly portal, where participating companies post available positions and criteria. The site also contains links to the different companies’ Web sites, enables students to research and contact employers.
Students should dress in business-casual attire for the open part of the fair; however, if called back for an interview, one should dress more formal, Shibata added.
According to a poll from the Career Services department, these forums are becoming more effective for job seekers in finding stable employment. During the 2007-2008 reporting year, job fairs surpassed Internet listings to become the second most common way respondents found their current job, just behind personal referrals.