CDC hosts annual career fair
The Career Development Center held its annual career and internship expo in Myers Field House. This year, it was Tuesday, October 10, in Myers Field House. Which gave Minnesota State students an opportunity to explore different companies for future jobs or internships.
CDC Assistant Director Kaite Hodgden said this event is an excellent opportunity for students to go, regardless of their grade, and to “build relationships, get to know some individuals that are working for organizations that you may like or may dislike.”
If someone were to apply for a job, they would have to learn everything they can from their website and hope to find someone on LinkedIn or through a connection where they could get an idea of what this is like in that company. Hodgden said that a career fair does that step for students.
“It’s about building your social capital and knowing that even if it’s not something for a current need, you are building another person in your network who may have potential to help you with an opportunity in the future or for you to help them in the future with an opportunity,” said Hodgden.
Hodgden hoped students got a lot out of this event.
“My hopes and goals for this event were to continue the conversations that we’ve always had at the fair, which is for employers and students to connect with each other,” said Hodgden. “And for everyone to start looking at the opportunities in front of them just a little bit differently and hopefully find positions that are more fulfilling to what they want to use their degree.”
Eleven different categories set up the layout of the fair. Instead of putting the same companies near each other, they split them up based on the company’s real-life challenges and values as a company. There are a lot of majors that are institutions and do not fit in a linear path. The CDC encourages students to understand that they can use their degree in flexible ways.
“My favorite example is Ames Construction lists themselves under there (mental health support), and I would not have typically thought that, so I asked them at a previous career fair,” said Hodgden. “They talked about the stigma of mental health concerns that exist within that field and how their company does an excellent job of trying to promote healthy work-life balance in a field that’s not easy to do.”
Senior Zach Finholdt, an accounting major, said he wants to work in an accounting firm for a bit and then in the actual accounting industry. One company that stood out to him was Compeer Financial.
“They offer a lot of agricultur financial services to a lot of like farms who need financial aid, well, financial services and stuff like that. So it’s always good to help support the agriculture side of things,” said Finholdt.
Header photo: The annual Career Fair was hosted at the Myers Field House for the first time this year to give students an opportunity to explore their futures in various fields. (Courtesy Career Fair)
Write to Lauren Viska at Lauren.viska@mnsu.edu