By Jillian Veldey | Reporter
On March 25, the Baylor University Career Center will be hosting a virtual teacher career fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. This event is open to students of all majors who might be curious about what a career in education might look like with over 60 employers attending.
Despite being in a pandemic, the Baylor Career Center is seeking out opportunities for students to network and learn about companies in hopes that they might discover whether a certain field interests them.
Newport Beach, Calif., junior Lexi Jackson said career fairs can be intimidating, so the last few she’s been to with an online structure really helped calm her nerves and enabled her to be more herself in front of different companies.
“I’ve gone to the in-person career fairs before, and even though I was intimidated and kind of nervous…afterward I walked away thinking it was very beneficial,” Jackson said. “The career fairs being virtual is much more attractive to me because I can be in the comfort of my own home and it honestly just feels less scary.”
In-person career fairs can also alienate students if they have prior obligations during the scheduled time, so some students are looking forward to this fair being more “student-friendly.”
La Porte senior Tayler Timmons said attending a career fair benefitted her networking and relational skills when it came to communicating effectively with recruiters.
“The virtual aspect of this career fair fits better with my schedule than an in-person option would,” Timmons said. “I’m interested in this structure because it gives me much more freedom to be able to talk to companies even if I have an appointment that day or work during that time or something like that.”
Not only does a virtual career fair create opportunities for more students to attend, but also more companies.
Southlake sophomore Joshua McSwain said he thinks that a virtual career fair will open the door for more companies, but also may hinder some key aspects of what he has enjoyed about career fairs in the past.
“I think [the career fair] being online allows for a broader selection of companies to advertise their employment opportunities to students,” McSwain said. “However, it comes with the adverse cost of not allowing as deep of relationships as being formed.”
