Diversity Job and Internship Fair kicks off three days of career fairs

For freshman Jeremy Cleary, Wednesday’s Diversity Job and Internship Fair was his first real opportunity to explore his career options.

“I really like that (career fairs) are all provided for us and we get a chance to check out everything.”

The event marked the first of three career fairs hosted by UNC Career Services this week. The larger Fall Job and Internship Fair will be held Thursday in the Rams Head Recreation Center at noon and will be followed by the Computer Science and Information Technology Fair in Sitterson Lobbies Friday.

Career Services Director Ray Angle said there were 58 employers at the fair Wednesday and that number will more than double Thursday, with over 120 employers. The smaller technology fair, which is a new fair offered this year, has 32 planned employers coming.

“The diversity fair is really not limited to students of a minority status — it is really open to an individual or an employer who wants to work in a diverse working environment,” Angle said.

Angle said they expected anywhere from 300 to 500 students to attend the diversity fair Wednesday.

“For the last two years, we have had over a thousand students come to the big fair,” he said.

He also said there will be fairs throughout the semester for law schools, nursing programs, master’s programs and more for students looking for more education following graduation.

Antoine Jones of Triage Consulting Group said his company has come to UNC career fairs for at least seven years now.

“We have a lot of alumni from UNC and we are trying to expand those efforts past the regular job fair (on Thursday) that we normally go to, looking at the diversity angle,” Jones said.

“We actually look for any major — our business is pretty niche, pretty specific so what that allows us to do is we are able to train anyone with any type of background.”

Jami Boyles of Graybar said her company has had great experiences with UNC in the past.

“We are a distributor of electrical and communications process products, so we look for schools with a particularly strong business school, with a focus on sales,” Boyles said.

Senior Eric Foster probably wouldn’t have come to the Diversity Job and Internship Fair Wednesday if it weren’t for his class.

His career planning course required him to come, but he said he took advantage of the situation and explored the fair.

“It’s nice to get some exposure — I’m a senior so I’m trying to figure out postgrad plans,” Foster, a global studies major, said. “I’ve been searching online for a lot of things, but I think this helps to kind of put a face to an organization and make a connection.”

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