Photos by Kayla Johnson.
Students filled the Renaissance Coliseum yesterday with hopes and ambitions of receiving a full-time job or internship this summer.
The Spring Job and Internship Fair let employers and students interacted to learn more about each other. Some employers present included State Farm insurance, Girl Scouts of Central Illinois, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Caterpillar Inc.
Jon Neidy, executive director of the Smith Career and assistant vice president of student affairs explained what the fair gave to students.
“We are trying to provide opportunities for students to be as exposed to as many companies as possible, and for those companies to be exposed to those good qualities our students are bringing to those jobs,” Neidy said.
Additionally, Neidy said that 161 employers were registered at the fair while one or two cancelled or a few showed up outside the original schedule. The Spring Job and Internship Fair seems similar but has notable differences.
“The spring job fair has fewer employers at it. Otherwise, it’s structured exactly the same as the fall job fair,” Neidy said. “The difference in the number of employers is several of the larger companies that attend only do their recruiting in the fall. So, it’s a little bit smaller overall because some companies have already filled their quotas for internships and full-time jobs.”
Another student felt that the fair brought a variety of employers.
“There’s definitely something here for everyone,” Quinn Donnelly, sophomore computer science major, said. “If there’s one complaint I have though is that it’s kind of hard to pick out from literally 150 plus here, so it’s overwhelming to say the least.”
Some students anticipated that the fair would be easy to navigate.
“My expectations were [for it] to be a nice layout where I would be able to look at all the businesses and find them fairly easily. Logan Pulido, junior business economics major, said. “Along with friendly staff to help along the way and recruiters actively looking to talk to Bradley students.”
Pulido also expected that the employers present would help him along in his professional journey.
“I am just trying to get my feet wet, trying to get an internship,” Pulido said. “Trying to get some money over the summer and trying to get a role in the business sector, which will help the development of my professional career.”
At the end of the day, Neidy hopes that students take away valuable lessons from the fair.
“I hope students come away with an understanding that although they have an ideal company in mind there are a lot of very good companies to work for and that they should be open to all kinds of opportunities,” Neidy said.
