Tables at College to Career Expo The Xavierite
On Tuesday, Feb. 25, Saint Xavier University (SXU) hosted an Advising Career Success Day and College to Career Expo. Each event offered students the opportunity to get an understanding of their majors and requirements while also speaking with different employers about internship and job opportunities.
During the Advising Career Success portion, three workshops took place. Career Readiness, Advising Fundamentals, and Social Networking. Each workshop dived into different informative sessions to help students better prepare for their futures in the workforce.
Mendoza spoke at the Career Readiness portion of the event and fostered the importance in trying to relate to first-year students’ experiences to make sure that they “get the thought of career development and they get an understanding of their major career requirements by that first year so that once they become a sophomore, junior or senior, it isn’t necessarily foreign to them.”
During his presentation Mendoza spoke on different topics. These topics included; graduation requirements, popular majors, program updates, professional opportunities, popular professions for specific majors, companies attending the College to Career Expo, popular programs, graduate school preparation, and next steps.
“For seniors that get in here and think to themselves ‘Oh man, I wish I would have known that this place existed four years ago, I wish that I would have known that this job was available.’ That’s what we are hoping our freshman can do is encounter those jobs at an early point,” stated James T. Miller, B.A., Associate Director of Employer Engagement and Internships at the Career Development Center.
The College to Career Expo took place in the Shannon Center where there were 90 tables present. 87 contained employers and the other 3 included Human Resources, Transfer Admissions, and the Center for Inclusive Belonging.
Students had the ability to share resumes, speak with employers and find jobs/internships that resonate with their interests. Each employer offered advice that students are able to take in for when they are ready to go into the workforce.
Though there were 87 employers present, every major was not represented.
Miller explained, “For the student who says ‘I didn’t see my actual major represented when I went through the list of employers,’ I understand that completely. The truth of it is that every one of these companies have something to offer, almost every major. The hospitals have IT departments, the schools have marketing departments. Even if it doesn’t say marketing or ABC digital solutions, there are going to be solutions for those students.”
When sharing a resume with an employer, students are allowed the opportunity for them to remember them when sending an application to a company and to broaden their network.
“If some won’t take resumes at least you can be compelling enough with them to remember you so that when you send your resumes they are going to remember you,” said Miller.
Today, most resumes are not read by human eyes until they go through an applicant tracking system. This system sorts through and ‘reads’ resumes before humans get the chance to see them. This system was made to separate the “good” resumes from the “bad,” making for a quicker process.
“If you’ve ever been frustrated with sending in your resume and feeling like it’s never going to be seen by human eyes, you’re like ‘What am I doing here? I sent this and some computer is going to screen it out, no person’s ever going to see this.’ A career expo like this gives you the opportunity to interact with humans on a human level and ask them what they think of your resume. You are actually networking,” explained Oluwakemi Robbin, M.A.HigherEdAdm, Career Readiness Coordinator at the Career Development Center.
Miller shared, “When we look at the average student’s LinkedIn, it just doesn’t have connections. Here are 90 people that you can connect with and Link in with and build your network so that when you decide to look for the job that you are looking for whether it’s connected or not.”
Miller further explained, “You are building your network, connections, and your ability to speak to the world around you and do it in a really organic way. I’m not a big fan of just firing off resumes into the void hoping that they are going to land somewhere. This is a way to actually interact with real people and to do it in a real way.”
For more information pertaining to Advising and Career Success Day visit the Student Advising Center located at room L-208 in the Warde Academic Center (WAC), email studentadvising@sxu.edu or call 773-298-3131.
For more information pertaining to the College to Career Expo visit the Career Development Center located at room A-209 in the WAC, or contact careerdevelopment@sxu.edu.