CCD to hold spring career expo

By Belinda Zhu and Maria Morkas     1/30/24 10:07pm

The Center for Career Development will host the Spring 2024 Career & Internship Expo from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 2. The expo will include more than 70 employers, representing industries from aerospace, consulting, engineering, medical devices, education and financial services, among others, according to Camille Elmore, the associate director of employer engagement and data management for the CCD.

Elmore said the CCD hosts two career expos in the fall, one virtually and one in-person, and an additional in-person expo in the spring.

“We facilitate these large-scale recruiting events due to the nature of varying hiring timelines and recruiting needs from the employer perspective, and also for students to get the opportunity to directly network with employers interested in hiring them,” Elmore wrote in an email to the Thresher. “The timing of our recruiting events allows students to connect with recruiters who can predict their future internship and full-time hiring needs (as opposed to ‘just in time’ hiring when spots open up at an organization).”

---

---

According to Elmore, fewer energy organizations will be present at the spring expo compared to the fall expo, since most STEM roles were filled in the fall. Companies present will include ARCO, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Innovex, Partners for Justice and Medpace.

CJ Cao, a sports analytics major, said he is excited about the new firms present at the expo. 

“A lot of new firms are coming this year with new exciting opportunities, and I already have a list of companies that I would love to talk to,” Cao, a Lovett College sophomore, said. “For students like me who are late in the summer internship recruiting process, this career fair [will] be immensely helpful.”

Joshua Kang, an area major — a program that allows students to craft their own curricula — studying neuroengineering, said he doesn’t plan on attending this year’s career fair because the one he attended last year didn’t have any companies relevant to his field of study.

Chris Shen, who’s double majoring in computer science and business, said the organization at the career fair needs to be improved.

“The lines at the career fair are always so long, and the entire event is very crowded,” Shen, a McMurtry College junior, said. “They make an effort to give us a map of all the booths, but maybe they [should] just do it for different sectors, like having one dedicated to tech.”

The CCD hosted two “Skip the Line” events on Jan. 23 and 30 to address the long lines for expo check-in.

“Students who arrive at the Expo wearing their CCD-provided name tags from Skip the Line events can bypass the outdoor check-in process and proceed to the Expo to connect with employers,” Elmore said. “We will begin checking in students at 9:45 a.m., so students who arrive early can enter the Expo immediately when the doors open at 10 a.m.”

---