Tatiana Campos-Teixeira

The Penn State Abington Spring Career Fair 2023 occurred on March 1st. The event took place in the athletic building with over 70 different companies attending. The event included not only internship opportunities for undergraduate students but also possible job opportunities.

When students first walked into the athletic building, they signed in and received a tote bag including a padfolio with a map of where companies were at which booths, a reminder of what should be said at the interview, and a QR code of the online version of the PSU Career guide.

After they signed in and spoke with a volunteer or a career peer advisor, they were greeted and shown where they could make their name tags. Then they stepped into the gym filled with company booths and sought their preferred companies to speak with.

Lauren Webber, a Communications major allowed me to interview her about the event. Webber told me that “This is [her] first time going to the carer fair. At first it was a little overwhelming but, eventually y’know, I just took a breath, and I just kind of concentrated on how I was going to present myself to the employers and ya know, I asked them questions about their organization, so I would definitely say, just take a breath, ask some questions about the organization and then you can build conversations off of there.”

Her advice to students nervous about approaching employers was “Honestly, I know this sounds counterintuitive, but just going up to them was kind of easy. And then, once you really got talking to them it became easier.”

Another student, Kreuti Patel, a Corporate Communications major, stated the most difficult aspect of the career fair was “Setting up your opening speech and of course, the spacing, getting into the career fair, and it’s hard to put yourself out there; how to introduce yourself. That’s something very difficult because at the same time you don’t know what you’re going to say, and how you’re going to portray yourself. ”

Patel echoed Webber’s advice to nervous students. “The easiest, I would say is just walking over to them, ya know, and having your resume just ready. That’s what I think one of the easiest things you can do is because you can just offer them your resume and they’ll know and look into it.” Patel added, “they are very easy to talk to, all you just have to do is look tall, smile, and be open and upfront.” Her final remarks were “Just be confident, and go for it!”

 Students were required to wear professional clothing before attending. 

At the career fair students were able to take a professional headshot either for their Nittany Lion Career profile picture, or other professional networks such as LinkedIn, etc. They had the option of receiving both a digital and physical copy of the photo, free of charge. 

At the back of the gym was an information desk, where volunteers and CPD (Career & Professional Development)  staff were able to help those who were confused or needed help guiding them to their desired company. 

 

Trevor Brown, was a representative of Northwestern Mutual, which was one of the sponsors for the career fair. Brown told me that the most important skills “in our industry,” are “people skills.”  “It’s very much a people person-focused industry so, definitely people skills, speaking skills, and then all of our best candidates are super coachable and willing to learn. Those are really the three things that I need to be seeing in an initial interview.”

Brown added that “I got to be honest with you, like GPA and stuff like that isn’t the most important thing to me. I love seeing on somebody’s resume that they worked at some service job, because I feel like there’s so much you can learn from something like that. And that’s kind of where I came from too, my family comes from that. So something where there was like crappy hours or their washing dishes somewhere like, I love seeing that on somebody’s resume because that means they’re willing to work. And for me like that’s the biggest thing because you want to come in and work hard, because and again in our business that’s what it takes to be successful so prior internship experience always helps, so if they were interned at a bank or marketing agency, that’s great, but things like GPA and stuff aren’t as important to me as your willingness to work.”

Lily Cheng represented Main Line Health, another sponsor of the career fair. Cheng told me that what she looks for in a student at the Career Fair is “Definitely hesitation, you know, eagerness to learn more about the company, being prepared, an understanding of what they’re looking for.” 

Cheng said that there are a variety of positions to recruit for at the fair.  “So we have anything from entry-level, to internships to ya know, if they’re graduating to beginning their careers.”

The Career fair is always free to all Penn State students, even to those who are alumni who have already graduated.

Career and Professional Development (CPD) staff encourage all to attend and network for future opportunities. The Career Fair will be held again next year during the spring semester, so if you did not attend this year, there will be another opportunity next year.

Start preparing by talking to a peer career counselor to sharpen your interview skills and improve your resume. CPD also highly recommends looking into the career guide. It has lots of great advice and tips on not only how to look for internships and jobs, but also how to improve one’s resume and cover letters.