Held yesterday in the O’Connor Recreation Center from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Hopkins Career Fair was bustling with job-seeking students. The Hopkins Career Center organized the annual event, which featured over 120 full-time internship and graduate school opportunities.
According to Career Center Director Mark Presnell, planning for the event began in February of this year.
“We set the dates for the event probably six to eight months in advance,” Presnell said.
This was Presnell’s last Career Fair at Hopkins, as he recently accepted the position of Executive Director of University Career Services at Northwestern University.
When asked what he would most like to see at his final Career Fair, Presnell said that he would like to see an environment where students and employers can both find mutual benefit.
Emily Calderone, assistant director and career counselor at the Career Center, provided more insight on how the employers come to be at the Career Fair.
“We don’t actually select employers, we invite every employer in our database — so it’s about 3000 companies that we send the invitation to — and employers self-select to come to the fair based on whether or not they’re interested in Hopkins students and if they have openings.” Calderone said.
The database features a range of employers: those who are local, those who have hired Hopkins students in the past, as well as a variety of Federal Government Agencies that are interested in hiring Hopkins students.
Josh White works for the Southern Teachers Agency, a recruitment company based in Charlottesville Virginia.
“We recruit teachers for private and independent schools all throughout the South, and we want the best candidates that we can possibly get. Johns Hopkins has a great reputation for producing very smart and very bright students,which would then translate into very smart and very bright teachers,” White said.
That message was also echoed by Laquisha Bonsai of Hire Power, LLC.
“We chose this one because we are working with employers that really wanted students from Johns Hopkins University,” Laquisha said.
Junior Kevin Rowland, an electrical and computer engineering major, found the Career Fair to be very helpful.
“The bigger companies [were there] — you already know their names — so it was helpful to see the smaller companies. I’ll probably send applications to those places as well,” Rowland said.
Minmin Chen, who is currently pursuing a masters degree in biomedical engineering, also enjoyed her time at the Career Fair.
“I didn’t go to a lot of companies. . .I only ended up going to three. . .But it was helpful, because its a way for me to get to know what kind of expertise the companies are looking for,” Chen said.
It was junior public health studies major Caroline Tiche’s first time attending a Career Fair on campus.
“I came in with an idea of who I wanted to see and basically the intention of making connections for future internships,” Tiche said.
Beyond the Career Fair, students are encouraged to take advantage of the many resources provided by the Career Center. These services include interview preparation, résumé and cover-letter help as well as “career profiles,” which can aid students in the career exploration process.
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