The Career Center hosted an installment of their bi-annual job fair that provided a space for students seeking job and internship opportunities to connect with 73 potential employers.

The fair occurred on Thursday, April 11 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the USU Ballroom.

All students were welcomed by event organizers and Career Center staff Karin Iwasaka, Heather Starr and Brenda Dumas. Once checked in, students received name badges printed with their name and major.

Career counselor Mark Carolino monitored the photo booth set up to give students the opportunity to take professional photos for free.

Student peer counselors Maritza Mercado and Sophie Cruz answered Career Center related questions for students and gave out “CSU Stair Master” T-shirts to students who dressed professionally.

Amongst the rows of companies were some that had attended previous job fairs, such as Geico, as well as other companies visiting the campus for the first time like BioLegend, a bioscience company that creates antibodies and reagents for biomedical research.

BioLegend’s human resource representatives said students at CSUSM seemed less prepared at the fair compared to other schools. The students they encountered did not know what their career goals were nor studied in the field the company was seeking from applicants. The company’s intent was recruitment but resembled more of an informational booth at the fair as a result of student feedback.

Other companies did intend to hire students at an entry level and have opportunities for internal growth through management training programs. Enterprise rent-a-car advertised a Management Trainee program in their Southern California locations.

Frontwave credit union, based in Oceanside, had 10-week paid internship opportunities advertised in various departments such as accounting, information technology, learning & development, lending, and marketing.

Criminology and Justice Studies student, Michael Valli, will be graduating in May and said it was his first job fair and used the opportunity to see what options were available.

Valli said, “it’s a great thing to have [the job fair] because it feels like it gives a lot of students a gateway opening to explore some possibilities in their careers.”

In addition to job fairs, the Career Center hosts workshops and guidance for students in Craven Hall 1400. To sign up for upcoming events visit https://www.csusm.edu/careers/careerservices/handshake.html.