As students immerse themselves in the hunt for summer internships and full-time job offers, 72 companies will recruit prospective graduate and undergraduate employees from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at CareerLAB’s annual Spring Career Fair. The fair is divided into two sectors — 35 employers in Sayles Hall for the general fair and 37 in the Kasper Multipurpose Room for the Social Impact Job and Internship Fair, which CareerLAB devised last year in conjunction with the Rhode Island School of Design.
Employers are always looking to recruit students from Brown, said Andrew Simmons, CareerLAB director, emphasizing the importance of career fairs for finding employment at companies that do not necessarily have specific job postings.
“This is just one piece of the overall fabric that we have at Brown for advising,” Simmons said, adding that there are CareerLAB resources for students whose interests lie outside of the companies represented at the fair.
Though employers were pleased overall with the Brown students at last year’s fair, many noted students did not seem prepared to sell themselves, Simmons said. CareerLAB focused on better preparing students for the fair this year by offering a video with tips including advice on clothing, resumes and follow-up emails, he said. The video, along with other resources for Career Fair preparation, are on CareerLAB website, he said.
Casey Kim ’17, a visual arts concentrator, said she is not currently looking for an internship and did not know CareerLAB was hosting a fair. As a VISA concentrator, she said she does not see a need to attend and would like to see the University focus on bringing more companies offering design-based internships to the fair.
Twenty-five of the 35 companies recruiting at the general fair this year seek students with tech-based skill sets, according to the Spring Career Fair schedule.
The high percentage of tech firms can be attributed to the industry’s rapid growth, which has caused increased demand for talent in that field, Simmons said, adding that because these fields generate large revenues, the major tech companies can devote more funds to recruiting at campuses.
Tom Doeppner, vice chair of the department of computer science , said the tech industry has always maintained a high demand for employees, and the number of recruiting firms has been on the rise recently. Technology recruiters are not indicative of University support for the industry but represent a combination of high demand for Brown students and the current state of the economy, which demands more tech-oriented employees, he added.
Zifan Yang ’14, a biomedical engineering concentrator, said he also noticed a large tech presence at startup fairs he attended in Boston. He added that he was not aware of today’s fair and is not attending, though he found previous fairs extremely helpful, as they taught him how to present himself to companies.
Doeppner said most computer science students secure employment through the department’s Industrial Partners Program, and the Career Fair caters mostly to students who have completed less coursework in computer science — such as first-years and sophomores — and students who joined the concentration later in their undergraduate careers.
Despite the high number of technology companies at the Fair, Simmons said students not studying computer science should still attend the fair, because companies could be looking for students with a wide variety of skill sets.
ADVERTISEMENT
