Students anxious to get their post-graduation acts together could find Scene I in the Student Center Ballroom tomorrow.

The Career Services Center will host its Spring Career Expo from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event features 84 employers in search of candidates for internships and full-time, degreed positions.

Students will find a more expansive variety of jobs compared to past career fairs, said Ami Haynes Hollis, an assistant director in the Career Services Center. Organizations scheduled to participate range from Abercrombie & Fitch to the Ohio State Highway Patrol to financial giant Wells Fargo. Three additional employers – Adidas, Maxim Healthcare Services and Total Quality Logistics – have signed up to recruit at Kent State since the career fair in October.

“Every major at the university could find some type of opportunity at the fair,” Hollis said. “Job seekers who are coming need to think outside the box and go to all the organizations.”

At a previous job fair, an English major approached Hollis to express his dismay over the perceived lack of jobs for liberal arts students. He left the fair with a technical writing internship at a local hospital, Hollis said.

“There’s actually a trend now with a lot of the recruiting where they don’t seek out specific degrees, they seek out skill sets,” Hollis said. “They can teach them the job. They’re looking for a specific type of person, and a lot of times, liberal arts students are the people they’re looking for.”

Let the resumes fly

As with formal job interviews, a solid resume is the foundation for success at career fairs, Hollis said. Job seekers should plan to leave a resume at every table they visit.

Career counselor Hobson Hamilton reviews stacks of resumes each week for students who drop by the Career Services Center. He said attention to detail is more important than style gimmicks.

“I think a lot of it goes back to the basics,” Hamilton said. “Use resume paper of a heavier stock. If they choose the more conservative colors, it will stand out.”

Common resume slip-ups include the use of abbreviations, personal pronouns and verbs that are boring or redundant, Hamilton said. The worst mistake is sloppiness.

“A lot of what we do is kind of nitpicky stuff, but it’s a measure of (how serious the person is),” Hamilton said. “One of the biggest knock-out things is a typo.”

Research pays off

Employers are most impressed by students who know the companies, jobs they’re applying to and the jobs they’re seeking, Hollis said. Job seekers who research their prospective employers in advance are the most successful in wooing recruiters.

“They can prepare a 30- to 60-second commercial about themselves,” Hollis said. “Recruiters like when candidates come up and introduce themselves rather than saying, ‘I’m an XYZ major, what do you have for me?'”

Background information about all 84 participating employers and the jobs they are filling is available from FlashForward, the official Career Services Center recruiting Web site.

Contact career services reporter Adam Milasincic at [email protected].