Over 1,500 students packed into the Events Center on Thursday, résumés in hand, for Binghamton University’s semesterly Job and Internship Fair.
This semester’s fair boasted 111 employers, ranging from high-tech manufacturers to financial service providers and representing companies such as IBM, GEICO and Verizon. The Job and Internship Fair, hosted by the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development, has been held for nearly 30 years at BU and has grown in size each year.
According to Francis Borrego, the senior assistant director of marketing and assessment for the Fleishman Center, the fair has consistently served as a resource for students who are looking to begin the job hunt.
“This is for the employers to introduce themselves, as well as the students to become more familiar with the organizations, so that then they can go in the recruiting pipeline,” Borrego said.
Just over half of the companies at the fair were recruiting students from all majors, a statistic that has increased in recent years. This rise is attributed to companies seeking talented and well-rounded liberal arts students with varying perspectives on problem solving, according to Borrego. Alexa Abrams, ‘13, a talent acquisition associate for Publicis Media, a multinational advertising and public relations company, said that her company ultimately seeks a candidate with a diverse skill set.
“Even as an English major, if you don’t know numbers you would have a different approach of seeing a specific answer to a problem that someone who is a finance manager — who is trying to look at only the numbers — might have,” Abrams said. “In order to be a successful business, it definitely helps us to have diversity of thought.”
John Tooke, a risk advisory services associate at Grant Thornton LLP, the fifth largest accounting firm in the world, also said he was looking for students who have a diverse range of experience.
“We are really just looking for well-rounded individuals,” Tooke said. “Everybody has a good GPA, so we are looking for people who are really involved with different organizations, community service and continue to try to grow themselves.”
Many students said that they came to the fair not only to find an internship, but also just to practice their interviewing skills. Aastha Kataky, a junior majoring in economics, attended the fair and said that she hoped to get involved with companies early on so that she could make connections in the long run and potentially find a future job with one of the organizations.
“It is a great way to network, so even if you don’t work with these people you can keep in contact with them over the years,” Kataky said. “Through them you can get to know more people. It’s like a stepping ladder for your career.”