By Meredith Howard | Staff Writer, Video by BrenShavia Jordan | Broadcast Reporter
Baylor students were able to speak to a variety of potential employers at Wednesday’s Career Day, the largest career fair in Baylor’s history.
Baylor’s Career Day was hosted in three on-campus locations from 3-7 p.m. The event hosted 175 top employers, over 600 recruiters, hiring managers and Baylor alumni who engaged with students.
Employers relating to business and liberal arts majors were located in Foster Campus for Business and Innovation. STEM and health sciences major careers were in Cashion Academic Center and government and non-profit related majors were housed at the Bill Daniel Student Center.
Attendees had the chance to try out the new Baylor Career Day app, which provided a detailed map to assist students in locating employers of interest. The new app also showcased information about various employers that students could search for based on school year, job type and other factors.
Orange, Calif., senior Allie McMurtry was a student employee at the Career Center this summer, and she enjoyed attending this year’s event to check out Texas Health and Human Services and a children’s ministry company. McMurtry recommends that students visit the Career Center even if they may be apprehensive.
“I feel like sometimes it can be intimidating to go to the Career Center when they’re dressed in suits or seem super professional, and their job is to get you a professional job; it can be intimidating and nerve-wracking to go to them. But once you know them, all they want to do is help,” McMurtry said. “It makes me sad that not everyone goes to them because they’re super great.”
McMurtry has used a few of the Career Center’s services, and she was happy with the help they provided for her job search.
“The way Handshake is set up where you can see what employers are coming and get little snippets of who they are and what they do, and you can see what jobs they’re hiring for all in one place— I think that makes it really easy,” McMurtry said. “They released an app for today which is super nice. It gives you a map of where everyone is and they’re just super friendly faces. They want me to get a job.”
Trabuco Canyon, Calif., senior Claire Crites attended Career Day to learn more about government and non-profit companies, and she also used the new Career Day app to prepare for the event. Crites appreciated the event’s increased scope.
“I have the app and looked through the floor plan; I [saw that] it is very detailed,” Crites said. “They’re all very diverse companies. It’s a very streamlined event and you know what to expect. They make all the information very readily available to you. I’ve had a great experience with it so far. I don’t think Baylor’s done an event like this on such a big scale before.”
El Paso senior Alan Romero said that he went to Career Day to hear about opportunities in the criminal justice system. He learned about career opportunities in his hometown that he wasn’t expecting to find, and found that Baylor has helped him through the career process. He shared some career advice for job-seeking seniors.
“My ultimate desire in life is to become a Texas supreme court judge,” Romero said. “Don’t hold too much to your original idea of what you want to do. There’s always different opportunities you didn’t know about.”
More information about Baylor’s services through the Career Center can be found on the Baylor website.
