Quinnipiac University’s career fair was held in the recreation center on Monday, Oct. 17. Faculty members that connected students with employers explained why it’s important to have career fairs on campus.

Jill Koehler, associate dean of career development for the school of business, who has run the career fairs at Quinnipiac for 16 years, says it’s important for, “students [to] know what opportunities are available and that the employers have an opportunity to see our awesome students.” 

Those attending the career fair had the opportunity to network and the possibility to walk away with internships or jobs. Koehler says that she recommends students spend at least an hour at the fair and speak to around 20 employers.

John Bau, director of career development for the school of computing and engineering, says students were encouraged to look at the employer list beforehand so they could, “prioritize your high, medium and low value target employers and spend your time accordingly.”

Many faculty members also explained that almost any question is a good question to ask regardless of where students felt their skill sets were. Koehler said the only questions to avoid asking were, “what’s the salary, how much time off…” and other questions of that nature.   

Furthermore, students who were looking for opportunities outside of Connecticut were in luck. According to Koehler, many employers were also open to providing job or internship opportunities in other states. 

Faculty involved in setting up career fairs on campus explained that it is not a simple task. However, they believe the fairs are important because they allow students to make many connections.

“The little secret is that employers want our students at the fair to be amazing, to be the ones that they want,” Bau said.

Students at the career fair such as marketing major Mila Iuteri, expressed their gratitude to Quinnipiac for creating this opportunity.

“I love Quinnipiac for their business program, and I love that they’re doing these career fairs so that I get to see what’s around and what they have to offer,” Iuteri said. 

Many students came to the career fair with similar goals in mind. Second-year finance major Zachary Rotkowitz was looking to see what companies fit his interest, make connections and see if he could land an internship.

“I’m also hoping to just get my name across to companies so if I don’t get an internship this summer I could apply for next summer or at the very least have good connections that I could use for the future.”

Overall, many students like third-year finance major John Cusack agree that the career fair is a good place to be with a nice environment. 

“It’s just nice to see that a lot of people want to do what I want to do or people want to connect with me,” Cusack said. “I’m not here to get judged, I’m here to network with people.”
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