The future starts now

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Chicago students have been known to explore scientific and philosophical theories, but last Thursday at the 2007 Winter Career Fair, “career exploration” was the name of the game. The annual fair, sponsored by the University’s Career Advising and Planning Services (CAPS), brings employers from the information-technology, nonprofit, and financial sectors, among others, explained Corynne Pero, CAPS’s student and employer-relations specialist. Held in the Ida Noyes Library/Lounge and the Cloister Club, this year’s fair hosted more than 50 employers including Merrill Lynch, Teach for America, and Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear.

In preparation for meeting with potential employers, third-years, fourth-years, and masters’ students were advised to wear business attire and to bring their resumes, which CAPS could review at lobby walk-in stations. “A career fair,” Pero noted, “is really just an on-the-spot interview.”

Waiting in line to talk to representatives from Susquehanna International Group, an investment-banking firm, third-year Sherry Hwang thought the career fair offered worthwhile information about summer internships in finance and consulting. Yet not all students were satisfied with the on-site prospects. Egyptology majors Lindsey Miller, ’07, Janelle Pisarik, ’08, and Jessica Henderson, ’08, were disappointed that only one employer fit their interests: the Field Museum. There was an “entire room dedicated to finance,” Miller noted, yet “nothing for psychology, anthropology, sociology, English majors—the majority of majors at the school—except teaching.” Pisarik added, “I would have liked to see other museums,” employers from a wider range of disciplines, and some from farther distances. Still, resumes in hand, they walked the aisles and considered the options.

Ruthie Kott

Photos: A prospective investment banker gets informed (top); Job seekers overrun the Cloister Club (bottom).

January 17, 2007