In one of their first networking events of the fall quarter, the DePaul Career Center held a career fair in the LPC Student Center on Sept. 28. The fair was open to all current DePaul students and alumni. It boasted “top employers from a variety of industries recruiting for jobs and internships,” according to Handshake. The career center also hosted a virtual fair on the following day. 

Students from a variety of majors came out to explore their opportunities at the fair, but for some it fell flat. 

“I feel like the things they have here are more geared towards business, marketing, things like that,” senior physics student Naomi Shechter said. “I walked up to the booth for Northrop Grumman which is an aerospace company but they mentioned they are mostly looking for marketing and things like that.”

The companies in attendance ranged from restaurant groups, financial investment firms, non-profit organizations, and more. Despite this wide array of opportunities the majority of the companies were looking for business, marketing or public relations internships. 

“I feel like there were a lot of companies and they didn’t necessarily represent what I’m trying to get into,” political science student Sofia Joseph said. “I feel like it was directed towards a certain career field like business or data analyzing stuff like that. Not to say all of them, but a lot of them were like that, and I don’t feel like there were a lot of options pertaining to, say, journalism or stuff like that.”

Looking towards future events, students had thoughts about future career events and communications from the career center. 

“I know personally I’m not getting all the communication that I need,” Joseph said. “I’m a first year student. I’m very caught up in academics right now, but I’d like to see some more emails sent out about internships or maybe provide more insight into availability and opportunities around this area.”

To fill the need this fair missed, some students suggest more fairs more specifically aimed at different fields. The Career Center does offer a virtual, technology fair later in the fall and colleges may offer specific fairs but the university wide career center seems focused on traditional corporate careers. 

“Maybe they could have a science career fair separately, but you have to look a little bit here to find something you’re looking for if you’re in my major,” Shechter said. “I feel like I received no explanation. Should I be handing people my resume? How do I act during things like this? Which maybe some people understand a bit better.”

While some student’s didn’t find the perfect fit for their career aspirations, they are still glad for the opportunity the fair presented. 

“I feel like I got more out of it than I originally thought I was gonna get,” environmental science student Diana Gonzaga said. “Part of that is probably because I didn’t really have any expectations of the event since this was my first career fair I’ve ever gone to. I definitely got a lot of information from a lot of places I didn’t know I would be interested in looking at, like for a kitchen and stuff like that, so that definitely caught my attention.”

While recognizing the fair was better suited to address the needs of other careers, students were still happy with the experience. 

“I’m happy I got somethings to look at, but it was probably more worth other people’s time,” Shechter said. “It’s not a useless thing. It’s still something good.”