Fall 2023 Career and Internship Fair
Student Perspectives Series: Each semester, students of the Comm 350 (Digital Storytelling) class pick a campus event to create a multimedia review. Comm 350 is taught by Professor Anjuli Brekke and teaches students multimedia content creation skills. Through hands-on practice, students learn to put theories into action and to become a creative and effective storyteller in the digital media world.
The University of Wisconsin Parkside often holds events to help benefit its students and increase their chances of succeeding post-graduation. Recently they hosted an internship and career fair with 64 companies that had a few representatives come to promote their company's message and look for promising young minds to apply. Additionally, they had a photo booth for people to take professional headshots for free, everything was easy and accessible. There was plenty of staff/volunteers around to assist.
We took the opportunity to walk around and interview some of the tables, and find out why they came and how they feel they may benefit from coming to the Career Fair. Starting with Inpro Corp. which since 1979 has been a global provider of high-performance products for commercial buildings. They started in Wisconsin and now have places in Arizona, Illinois, and North Carolina.
Representatives from this company informed us that “their company is still going strong and growing fast and they want to attract young employees with creative minds to join.” They were excited to be here because the school has very qualified candidates. They are looking specifically for “coachable, willing-to-learn students." This job sounded very different from the rest mainly because the representatives spoke of even talking to the office if needing to find a better position in their company.
We next went to ITW Medical which is a leading manufacturer of custom and standard fluid management along with flow control and filtration components. This representative was looking for potential candidates with skills in no specific area. “How someone can fit into the company is all based on what the company needs in the moment.” The goal for their company at the fair was to simply get exposure. She suggested we check their company website for job options “JOBS ON ITW.”
We also spoke with the Racine Unified School District table and their representatives stated “They are looking for substitute staff/teachers assistants. Specifically for people with a love for kids and a passion for teaching.” Last, we spoke with Jockey International Inc. a local family-owned business that has been around for 150 years. Their main goal for being there was to “network and get their name out there.” They were also looking for potential candidates that had standout personalities.
We interviewed a student after coming out of the fair and asked him a few questions about his experience and whether it was worth attending or not. He claimed “it was better than what he was hoping for.” He received a free leather portfolio with ruled paper and a delivery Kroger bag to carry the items he received from the booths. He walked around and talked to a few companies to get his name out there and feels he would like to look more into places like Northwestern Mutual and M3 Insurance. Although this student did not take advantage of the free photo we did notice a good amount of students who did and seemed pleased. In conclusion, this was definitely a beneficial event held for students especially those who might have trouble figuring out what they want to do after college.