Troy University’s Career Services is providing several upcoming opportunities for students who are interested in future jobs or internships.
On Tuesday, April 18, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Hal Hall, students can meet with future employers at a networking mixer, and on Wednesday, April 19, there will be a career fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Sartain Hall for students to explore multiple professions.
Lauren Cole, the career services coordinator, said the networking mixer would include employers, primarily the most popular ones, talking with students and providing connections for attendees.
“They’ve (employers) got the longer lines at the career fair, people like CGI, Georgia Pacific, Alliant Group out of Texas,” Cole said.
There will also be an opportunity for students to ask the panel questions.
“They (students) can ask individual questions about specific employers, or try to gear it towards more generalized questions that would affect the whole audience,” Cole said.
Cole suggested that students ask employers about resumes, interviewing skills and the qualities employers look for in a new hire. At the end of the mixer, Cole said that employers will stay to speak with students one-on-one.
“The students have heard from the employers, so they’ve got a good idea of what they do and what they offer,” Cole said. “Then they can all get together afterwards to hand out their resumes to each of them.
“The employers will stay until no more students are there approaching them.”
In addition to the employers at the mixer, there will be recruiters from Mariner Finance, Peace Corps, Regions Bank, WSFA-TV and Boone Newspapers at the career fair.
Cole said that it is usually students who attend both events who are more likely to be interviewed for a position.
“A lot of the employers do interviews while they’re in town,” Cole said. “If they meet you at the networking mixer, often those are the individuals that get the interviews.”
Cole said that students should go to both events to make connections with employers to gain an internship or a job.
“We’ve seen multiple internships come out of it, and it’s a preview to the career fair,” Cole said. “If they (students) come the night before and then go to the fair the next day and approach that employer, that employer already knows who they are.”
Cole suggested that students do background research on the companies before approaching them and prepare their resumes to bring to the career fair.
Cole said that underclassmen should go to see what internships are available and gain practice speaking with employers.
“The summer after your sophomore year is a perfect time to do an internship,” Cole said. “We want them (students) to get internship leads and practice speaking with employers.”
For upperclassmen, Cole said that she wants students to make connections so that employers will know when they are graduating and be available to work.
“Some (employers) are definitely hands-down hiring May graduates, but a lot of them like to make connections with students earlier, their junior year, their senior year, earlier on so that they can anticipate them (students) graduating,” Cole said.
Cole said that there have been many students who have made connections at the career fair and used them to gain a job.
“We had one young lady, she was a math major, and she actually helped introduce us to the Eglin Airforce Base,” Cole said. “She did an internship there and is currently working there.”
For students interested in knowing more about the sixty employers at the career fair, the information is located on the Career Services tab by logging into TrojanLink and selecting “Career Fairs.”
Professional headshots will be also be available and minimum of business casual attire is required.
Comments