Last Wednesday, the Career Center put on The Spring Career Fair in the Taffner Field House from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. In the gym, employers and students had a chance to interact in a professional manner.

Jennifer Friary, associate director of Employer Engagement has organized five career fairs for St. Johns and coordinated which employers would be present at the spring fair.

The Career Center aims to provide students
with on career fair per semester.

“Usually we have between 100-120 employers at each fair,” Friary said. “I always want the event to grow, I hope that more students come each time.”

The Career Center offers pamphlets and seminars that detail proper etiquette in dress and manners when meeting prospective employers.

“Students need to come more prepared,” Friary said. “It’s a lot of effort to organize the fair, even if the student isn’t in the position of looking for a job, they should look presentable because it’s a great opportunity to network.”

Jennifer Carrol, a recruiting specialist for First Investors Corporation said that 90 percent of the applicants her company hires are recent graduates.

“We usually hire our recent graduates during this time of year anyway,” she said. “Most of the students I met today are very outgoing and motivated. I’ve been quite impressed with the people I spoke to today.”

Carrol emphasized the importance of presentation in a potential candidate.

“You have to look good; all the students I’ve seen today have been very well-dressed and well-mannered,” she said.

Sheila Sanchez, human resource Manager for Madame Tussauds, has just started coming to career fairs at St. John’s and hopes to employee recent graduates.

“We’ve seen a lot of great candidates,” Sanchez said. “I think we’re going to wait until the end of the day to assess who we want to hire though, we want to see who else is out there.”

Mark Osbourne, a 2008 St. John’s Alumn represented Target at a booth in the middle of the fair. Osbourne started working for Target the month after he graduated.

“It’s exciting to be back at St. John’s, its good to see familiar faces,” he said.

“Target isn’t where I saw myself, but I like working with teams and in the face-paced environment of our New York store.”

Osbourne is an executive manager at the Target Store in downtown Brooklyn. As a recent graduate, he said that campus recruiting works better for the company.

“We want these fresh minds to work for us.
The graduates are motivated and have intense desire to work hard, that’s what we like to see,” he said.

Senior Kristina Mamport attended the Career Fair hosted by the Career Center for the first time.

“It’s great to meet employers here because you can get all the facts and information plus meet them face to face,” she said.

“When I applied online for previous internships, I was only submitting a resume. It was very impersonal; this is much better.”
Tina Walsh is also a senior searching for a job through the career fair for the first time.

“I’ve never been to one of these before,” she said. “I’m a biology major and I never thought there was anything useful here for science majors, but I’ve already found several employers that I’ve really connected to.”

Senior Jon Pflug is no stranger to the St. John’s career fair.

“I’m a career fair veteran,” Pflug said. “I’ve come to everyone they’ve had.”

While Pflug has attended numerous fair over the course of his undergraduate studies, his approach this year
was much different.

“I really got a lot out of it this year,” he said. “Before, it was more of a joking matter. It was more about collecting pens. I never bought one pen in college because of this!”