Students seek job opportunities at three fairs

This past Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, students in suits trekked to the Sheraton Hotel at 36th and Chestnut streets with their resumes, million-dollar smiles and their wits.

This mass migration was all in the name of three Career Fairs — two University-wide “Career Link” fairs and one Engineering-specific-fair — where students hoped to make contacts, secure interviews and hopefully gain job and summer internship opportunities.

The fairs, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, were open to both current students — “from freshmen to Ph.D.s” — and recent alumni, according to Rosette Pyne, senior associate director of Career Services. Pyne also noted proudly that “at least half of [the recruiters] were Penn alumni representing their companies” at the Engineering fair alone.

While the festivities on Tuesday and Wednesday were open to the entire University community, the Engineering fair allowed companies to “showcase specific opportunities available within the Engineering and Computer Science department, as well as Math, Physics and Chemistry,” Pyne said.

The Engineering fair reached maximum capacity for the space of the Sheraton lower lobby, with 1,300 students and 86 company booths in attendance. From its humble setting in the halls of the Engineering buildings just two years prior, Pyne noted that the Engineering fair’s move to the hotel was one achievement of many.

“One of the reasons companies keep coming back is because our students do a terrific job and companies want more students like them,” Pyne said. She added that these very students become the alumni that, in turn, recruit current Penn students for their respective firms.

Grace Coleman, a recipient of Wharton’s Certificate of Professional Development and now a recruiter for Merck, a global healthcare firm, said that she was proud to return to her alma mater and see the caliber of its students. “I’m impressed by how prepared they are — they ask very smart questions and are by far more prepared than other schools,” she said. “Merck considers Penn a target school.”

College sophomore Olivia Chang attended the fair for more inquisitive reasons. “I’m interested in seeing what kind of jobs are out there right now,” she said. “I’m just doing research and exploring my options.”

College senior Kristen Santerian said she enjoyed the opportunity to meet with employers face-to-face. “[Many recruiters] will turn over your resume and write things down about you,” she said. “It’s nice to have a qualitative opportunity, instead of just your GPA and your major.”

Representative from L’Oreal USA and 2007 Engineering graduate Liana Esposito also noted that the Career Fairs are a great way for her company to gauge the communications and personal skills of candidates, as opposed to their raw academic credentials.

“It’s nice to put a face to a name,” Coleman added. “We remember stellar students, conversations … you’d be surprised.”

Pyne said that she could not have been happier with the event. “We actually had recruiters thanking us for putting on such a great event,” she said. “It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

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