Held once every fall and spring semester, the Rawls Career Fair is an excellent opportunity for students seeking internships or hoping to start their careers after graduating. Each career fair is a confluence of varying goals and strategies for a successful career fair. Even the idea of what makes a career fair successful differs wildly between the groups.
As part of the lead-up to this semester's Rawls Career Fair - held on Wednesday, February 21, at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center - we wanted to showcase the people from those different groups: a resume reviewer, a career fair organizer, an employer recruiter, and a Rawls College student. Each person was asked the exact same question, but their answers show just how different their approaches to the career fair are.
What does your work look like as you're preparing for the Rawls Career Fair?
As the career fair gets closer, my workdays consist of resume appointments, events, and workshops. I spend a lot of office time giving students and alumni one-on-one resume feedback in order to elevate and strengthen their professional documents so they can feel confident heading into the fair.
What is your day like during the Rawls Career Fair?
My day at the career fair consists of assisting the CMC with event organization, helping employers with any questions or issues they have, ensuring that students get checked into the fair appropriately, and networking nonstop.
What is your goal of the Rawls Career Fair? What, to you, would make a successful day of the Rawls Career Fair?
A successful career fair would be an increased number of Rawls student attendance as well as students feeling like they were prepared to maneuver through the fair effectively.
What is your favorite part of the Rawls Career Fair?
My favorite part of the career fair is seeing students interacting professionally with employers!
What does your work look like after the Rawls Career Fair?
After the fair, my workload will start to deal less with resume reviewing (although I will still host a few resume workshops), and interview prep and mock interviews will become the focuses of my workday.
What advice would you give to a student going to the Rawls Career Fair for the first time?
My advice is to start going to the fairs as early as possible and to utilize the Rawls CMC and our appointment types so you can feel comfortable and confident with all aspects of acquiring an internship or a job.