By Kadyann Stupart
On Tuesday, Oct. 10, Saint Leo University’s Career Planning organized a “Career Fair Prep Session” for students interested in participating in the Career Fair on Wednesday, Oct. 11. The session, which went from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., was led by the Assistant Directors of Career Planning, Deanna Bullard and Meagan Jones.
The suggestions that they had for students who attended the event ranged from how to dress both professionally and casually in the business world, to how to format their resume. One particularly great feature that the prep session offered was that they created and printed customized business cards for students.
Wednesday’s Career Fair saw many students, both in the undergraduate and graduate programs offered by Saint Leo, implementing the previous day’s suggestions. This year’s Career Fair had a total of twenty-three companies attending, some of which were Coco Cola Refreshments, Deloitte, Geico, HealthSouth, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, and the District School Board of Pasco County.
Pastor Perez, a second-year graduate student in the Masters of Business Administration Health/ Health Care program, attended the Career Fair for the first time. He found the event to be interesting and overall a great Career Fair. He went on to mention that he would consider applying for an internship with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, and the Pasco Sheriff’s Office.
Regular visiting employer, The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, also had a few words to say about the event. Lieutenant Timothy Kelly described the turnout as great despite the change of location and time this year.
When asked why the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office regularly attends our fair Lt. Kelly stated, “We get a lot of applicants coming from Saint Leo, [and]they excel while they’re here. So, we figured let’s go and meet the students over at [Saint Leo] so when they get out they know we’re hiring.”
First-time to the Career Fair was the Southwest Florida Water Management District organization. Their recruitment program manager, Alicia Brannon, shared that she too was impressed by the turnout at the Fair, specifically from the business and science oriented students. Brannon went on to mention that the company’s expectations were pleasantly met as they have a lot of Biology internships and just as many Biology students who had showed interest in their booth.
Overall, the 2017 Saint Leo Career Fair can be considered a success. The event had different employers from previous years, a generally large turnout from Saint Leo students of all majors and years, and both employers and students believed that the other was receptive and helpful.
