By Rory Dulock | Staff Writer
With more than 120 different employers in attendance, All-University Career Day is expanding to two different buildings this semester. The Career Center is hosting its event from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday in Cashion Academic Center and the Bill Daniel Student Center, giving students an early chance to get in front of employers for jobs and internships.
Jonathan Echols, communications and media manager for the Career Center, said Career Day is an opportunity that allows students of all majors to explore potential work within their industry.
“We have 120 different employers, and they are from all over the U.S., and they are from all different industries,” Echols said. “That’s why it’s all-university. They’re looking for all majors. Some people think that this is just for business students, but that’s not the case at all. It’s really for all students.”
Echols said students can expect to meet with a variety of major employers. He said for-profit employers will be in Cashion, while government and nonprofit employers will be in the SUB.
“The top employers … ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips — those are both oil and gas,” Echols said. “KPMG, Credera, Sendero — those are all consulting firms and financial things. … Academy Sports and Outdoors, Target, HEB. … There’s a lot more.”
Echols said Career Day is especially beneficial for students looking for full-time employment after graduation.
“Even if [a student is] going to graduate in May or not until August, these companies, the trend is really for them to recruit more heavily in the fall, so they’re recruiting now for jobs that may not start until next summer,” Echols said. “So those positions are open now, and they’re looking to fill them for that time period.”
However, Echols said Career Day is also for students interested in the chance to do an internship with one of these companies.
“They’re not just looking for people to fill full-time positions; most of these companies are looking to fill internship positions as well,” Echols said. “Sometimes people think that they might want an internship or job, but they’re not worried about it quite yet because they’re not going to graduate or not going to be ready to do that until the summer. It’s really important to look now, because that is when these companies are looking.”
Career Day also allows underclassmen to explore different career options even if they don’t know what they want to do, Echols said.
“It’s just a good thing to go and experience and check it out, and if nothing else, you can practice talking to companies and presenting yourself to them,” Echols said. “It’s really a great experience for everybody all the way across the board.”
San Diego freshman Hailey Tripoli said she is looking forward to attending Career Day and talking to professionals in her field of study.
“I think Career Day would be beneficial for me because I would hopefully get to talk to medical professionals,” Tripoli said. “I would also get to ask them questions about what it’s like to work in a hospital.”
Tripoli said these conversations will help her get a better understanding of the field she is considering.
“I would get a good insight to what a career in the medical field would be like in today’s day and age,” Tripoli said. “I’m hoping to meet some pediatric nurses at Career Day because that’s a specialty I’m interested in.”
Echols said he encourages students to register for Career Day as early as possible and to plan ahead.
“One of the reasons it’s good to go ahead and register now is because, by doing that, you can then see a list of all the employers that are going to be there,” Echols said. “We encourage students to … figure out which employers they’re most interested in so they can plan to spend their time accordingly and kind of make a plan for who they’re going to go to first. So that’s good just to do all those things in preparation and be prepared for the day.”
