On Our Mind: Career Fairs for all

Bulletin Staff (Thursday, March 27)

Emporia State prides itself on its Teachers College and School of Business, and attracts several thousand students each year who are interested in pursuing a degree in these fields. It’s then seen as logical to hold career fairs that are geared towards education and business majors.

Each fall and spring, Career Services coordinates an education and what is supposed to be an all majors career fair. The latter has a generalized title of “career fair,” so students studying in all three schools attend it.

Students who are studying in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are often disappointed because the majority of the employers at these fairs are looking for students with degrees in business management, accounting, marketing and others.

While a list of employers was not available on the Career Services Web site, the photo gallery from the spring 2007 career fair showed many of the companies present. Some of the businesses there were Target, Aflac, Westar Energy, Shawnee County Sheriff’s Department, Cabela’s, Hormel Foods and Sherwin-Williams Paints.

All of these employers are notable; however, they do not offer many careers outside of business management, sales and science. This is unfortunate especially when considering the current status of the job market and economy.

We know Career Services does its best to serve all ESU students by arranging on-campus interviews for students and employers, reviewing resumes and holding business etiquette dinners and makeover sessions.

Nevertheless, the very low number of LAS student attendees of the fall 2004 career fair (according to the evaluations summary on the Web site), indicate that there needs to be something done to accommodate those students who are majoring in the arts and humanities.

We believe the university and Associated Student Government should consider allocating student fees to Career Services so this can be made possible. Although this may not be a highly favorable option to students, we think it would be a very practical additional student fee that would benefit the ESU community in the long run.

1 Response to "On Our Mind: Career Fairs for all"


Benjamin J. Howard
April 4, 2008 10:51 am
I agree with the author's call for a more well-rounded career fair, as it is a largely useless exercise for the vast majority of LAS students. However, I fail to see how additional student fees help correct this issue. Students must already pay an extra fee to the Career Services office to get access to any of their really useful services such as a resume critique, mock-interviews, etc, which, in my limited experience, is unusual among campus career services offices.

If there is a quantifiable extra expense in bringing in a wider range of employers, then perhaps an additional student fee is appropriate. Such a need would have to be clearly documented before any such fee should be considered however.