After months of planning for Florida A&M University’s Fall 2019 Career Expo, the time is finally near. More than 150 companies from across the country will be at Thursday’s expo and the Center for Career and Professional Development at Florida A&M University is getting students ready.
In the days leading up to the event, the career center hosts events across campus that provide students with tools to aid them in being successful at the career expo. The goal of the Career Expo is to give students the opportunity to get internships and jobs after graduating.
Neillia Nicholas, a junior pre pharmacy student, has taken advantage of the resources the career center and organizations at FAMU to help her get interview-ready.
“I started going to the professional development workshops that the career center held in the spring and got headshots done by the campus org Jewels Inc. around that time too. Doing both of those really got me ready for the career expo,” Nicholas said.
Every semester, FAMU students voice one complaint about the career fair. Many students believe that the career expo lacks diversity in terms of the companies that are offering careers and internships.
Cortney Steward, a junior pre-pharmacy student, said, “I’m a pharmacy major but personally I don’t think any of the STEM majors get exposure to the job opportunities that we need.”
Shereada Harrell, director of Career and Professional Development at FAMU, suggests that students enter the career expo with an open perspective when inquiring about internships. “We are working on getting more companies to come, but what I need students to understand is all industries need different majors. Yes, a company may be in the banking or business industry, someone has to do the marketing for them, the IT for them, or tracking their history. Even if you are looking at an organization thinking that they only hire business majors it is so untrue,” Harrell said.
Every semester after the career expo Harrell looks forward to hearing about the jobs and internships that students have accepted.
“It really gives me a warm feeling inside and it validates what I do and why I do it. The ultimate goal is for students to come to FAMU, graduate and walk across the stage with a job in hand.”
In efforts to recognize every student’s big move after graduation, the career center encourages students that have accepted a job offer through the career expo to inform them via Handshake, a mobile app the career center uses to update students on upcoming events it is hosting.