On March 30th the School of Media and Communication’s Career Center hosted its second annual Internship and Career Fair from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. as a way to match employers in the media and communication field to Temple students who are studying in those areas. The event was held in Mitten Hall and hosted over sixty employers ranging from advertising agencies to public relations firms to television and radio stations.
The School of Media and Communication’s Director of Career Services, Lu Ann Cahn, has been planning this year’s Internship and Career Fair since the conclusion of last year’s fair.
“In a way I would say that it [planning the fair] has been pretty hardcore for the past few months,” said Cahn, “But we really started opening registration at the end of January and immediately students started registering.”
Dean David Boardman was in attendance and stressed the benefits of having a career fair that was exclusive to students in the School of Media and Communication.
“The employers [at the fair] know that we will not be wasting their time and the students know that these are employers have jobs and internships that won’t be wasting their time,” said Boardman, “This is a phenomenal opportunity for everybody.”
One of the biggest changes to the Internship and Career Fair this year is that students must have an approved résumé through SMConnect, which is SMC’s exclusive database that directly connects students and employers in the media and communication industry. In order to have a résumé approved in SMConnect, students submitted a copy of their résumé online to the career services team to have it checked. Once the student’s résumé was approved they were eligible to register for the fair.
“The reason that we did that [required an approved résumé for the fair] was because we heard from employers and they said ‘Listen, your students are wonderful and we can tell that they want to work hard but some of these résumés just don’t look right,’” said Cahn, “So we knew we had to work on that.”
Among the employers at the fair were several SMC alumni who were looking for fresh Temple talent. Rob Czyzewicz, who co-founded 20/20 Visual Media with his friend and fellow alumni Patrick Rosenbaum, was drawn to the fair after hearing about it from Cahn because he recognizes the abilities of Temple students.
“We’re primarily here [at the fair] looking for interns but we also want to grow our network of freelancers,” said Czyzewicz, “We’re a small company…there are a lot of times when we need more shooters so we rely on the work of Temple students to be able to supplement what we’re doing – we always walk away impressed with the work of Temple students.”
Junior Journalism major Juli Johnson heard about the fair from an SMConnect e-mail blast and was drawn to the opportunity to meet with employers one-on-one.
“You get to connect with people that you probably wouldn’t be able to connect with in a normal setting,” said Johnson, “This is a really unique setting to get to meet professionals in the industry.”
Although some students requested that the Internship and Career Fair occur each semester, Cahn says that she has toyed with the idea of creating a smaller event for the upcoming fall semester that would focus on connecting students with internships.
“This is such a big event that it really does take all year to put together,” said Cahn, “But I do believe that I could put together a fall event because some employers are asking for it.
Be the first to comment