Career fairs give students an opportunity to meet with employers face-to-face and help them build a network of job opportunities upon graduation, director of Career Services Leslye Ellison said.
Career Services sponsors two annual career fairs - the Career Expo and an Educator's Fair, Ellison said. She added that the Career Expo invites students of all backgrounds, majors and levels to attend, while the Educator's Fair is aimed at students looking for opportunities in education.
Ellison said that when students go the fairs they can expect to find a room full of employers who will have brochures, giveaways and other information. She recommended that students go dressed to impress and treat the fair as if attending a real life job interview.
Employers, she explained, want an overall professional presentation in terms of dress and rÇsumÇs, with a good, solid education and experience related to the kinds of positions students hope to obtain.
She suggested that men should either wear a suit and tie or slacks and a dress shirt, with polished dress shoes and a nice haircut. Women, she said, should wear a traditional skirted suit, even though pants are also in style. She added that women should have long hair pulled back and wear minimal jewelry.
"Cut-off shorts, 10 earrings, hair all over the place is not what employers are looking for," Ellison said. "They want to see and be impressed by that first image."
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Students should also come equipped with a rÇsumÇ, Ellison said, adding that undergraduates should have a one-page rÇsumÇ that is clear and concise with no spelling or grammatical errors.
"Those things rule you out faster than anything else," she said.
Ellison added that the most eye-catching rÇsumÇ is very traditional with no loud paper colors or "funky formats."
She said that employers will talk to students who stop by in their usual clothes, but students should come prepared.
Employers attending the career fairs this year, Ellison said, are more concentrated in federal and state government organizations and other companies associated with defense and military.
"Those employers are looking for people in all kinds of backgrounds," she said.
Richard Ross, a coordinator for Career Services, said career fairs are also usually attended by a wide variety of technical companies, school districts and financial assistance companies. He added that some of the more popular companies are technology-based, such as Lockheed Martin, and chain stores, such as Sears, Wal-Mart and Target.
Ross said that employers search college campuses throughout the nation looking for strong candidates to bring back to their office who will fit well in their organizations and have all the qualifications needed to be successful in that company.
He said that sometimes companies come to UNM in order to find more diverse candidates.
"Sometimes UNM is being used as a model for diversity because of our obvious diverse population that attends this institution," Ross said. "With that in mind, they come seeking Native American and Hispanic candidates.
