Spotlight for Career Services Professionals, August 17, 2011 

Students see career fairs as opportunities to meet and network with recruiters, while employers tend to view these events as branding opportunities. How do career centers attract students and employers to attend career fairs? How do they manage the expectations of student and employer attendees? (Part 3 in a series; see Part 1 and Part 2.)   

The career center at Parsons The New School for Design manages student expectations for the six to seven career and internship fairs it holds a year by apprising them about what they can expect during the events.  

“Students are looking for internship and job opportunities,” says Angie Wojak, Parsons’ career services director and author of Starting Your Career as an Artist. “We manage their expectations by how we pitch and promote the fairs.” 

The career center emphasizes that it’s holding career fairs, not job fairs, and encourages students to take advantage of the events’ opportunities to network and receive employer feedback on portfolios.  

“We want our students to realize that there can be long-term benefits to attending, as well,” Wojak says.  

Before career or internship fairs, students receive information about getting the most out of their participation through e-mail communications and electronic “tip sheets” provided by the career center. Also included in the prefair communications are a list of all the registered employers, what positions they are hiring for, and links to the employer websites. 

While the career center strives for wide attendance by students, the number of employers that can attend is limited to about 40 because of the venue's space constraints. Parsons doesn’t advertise the career and internship fairs among its employers. Instead, it has a targeted list of core employers. Career center staff members look at previous years’ employment reports to see which employers hire Parsons’ graduates. Staff then build a list of employers to invite based on which are hiring interns and have job opportunities. 

“We also touch base with the deans in our five schools to see if they have any industry partners or employers that sponsor projects that we’re not aware of,” Wojak says.  

One thing the career center is doing to make deeper connections among the career center staff, faculty, and employers is hosting luncheons immediately after each large job fair.   

“We educate employers about out majors, and introduce employers to our faculty and deans,” Wojak says. “We also encourage feedback from the employers that will be helpful as, among other things, we plan our career and internship fairs.” 

At Salisbury University, the career services office also apprises students about the positions for which registered employers will be hiring. When career services invites employers to its job fairs, the employers are directed to a registration page on which they indicate what jobs and/or internships they are recruiting. 

“We also ask what majors they are interested in,” says Charlie Endicott, associate director of career services. “We send this information to our students through targeted e-mail groups that are arranged by major and grade level.” 

Salisbury’s career services office also compiles the employer information and incorporates it into its online job fair book.  

“We send students an e-mail with a link to the job fair book,” Endicott says. “Students can find the name of the employers, short descriptions of the organizations, their websites, what jobs/internships they are recruiting for, their geographic locations, and the majors they need.”  

This, he points out, helps students research attending employers and prepare for the job fair.