With seniors worrying about the slumping national economy and a double-digit N.C. unemployment rate, this year’s Fall Career Expo is providing another cause for concern.
On Sept. 17, the number of employers at the Career Expo will be down about 30 or 40 percent from last year, said Jeff Sackaroff, associate director of University Career Services.
But the annual Career Expo, which will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Smith Center, will still offer students and employers opportunities to make connections.
Some seniors said they are concerned about this year’s decrease in employers.
“I’m nervous and I don’t really know if there are a whole lot of options,” said senior Salem Gregory, a psychology and Spanish double major.
Sackaroff said about 75 employers have signed up to attend this year’s event. Last year, about 130 employers attended.
In addition to the struggling economy, Sackaroff said he attributes the decrease to the beleaguered investment-banking industry, which has traditionally had a large recruiting presence at the University.
“Unfortunately, a bunch of those banks don’t exist anymore,” he said.
Attracting more students
Sackaroff said he prefers not to focus on the lack of employers. Instead, he said the focus for Career Services has always been on attracting more student interest for the Career Expo.
“Our challenge has always been getting the students to come, even in the good years,” he said.
Sackaroff said he expects between 800 and 1,000 students to attend this year’s event, a disappointing number considering the size of the student body.
“I don’t think students appreciate the value of this type of event and how rare these are to have this many employers in one building,” he said.
Sackaroff said attendance has been sparse in the past due to students’ misconceptions of the types of employers present.
“Sometimes students make the miscalculation that it’s just for business students when nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “The majority of our employers aren’t interested in any particular major per se. They just want students that have skills.”
The Career Expo is fairly comprehensive and features industries of all types, including corporate, nonprofit, government and education, Sackaroff said.
Sackaroff added that students planning on entering the workforce should strongly consider attending the fair, especially in the current economic conditions.
Senior management and society major Marcus Dean said he plans to pursue a graduate degree to become a more competitive applicant.
“College degrees have become a bare minimum in a sense,” he said. “Graduate school has become something of a necessity.”
But Dean said he will attend the Career Expo.
“It makes no sense not to go.”
For those students attending, Sackaroff has some advice.
“Treat this as a networking event,” he said. “Students don’t leave the career fair with a job in hand. They leave it with a next step in mind.”
