New employment expo to help with on-campus job search

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New employment expo to help with on-campus job search
Student speaks with someone from a classical school at the 2016 Classical Student Job Fair in the Searle Center. Joanna Wiseley | Courtesy

The first ever Hillsdale College On-Campus Employment Expo will be held Monday in the Grewcock Student Union from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Representatives from 13 employers from around campus from the marketing department to Bon Appétit Management Co. will show students how to apply for part-time positions during the school year. Information on summer jobs will also be available.

Director of Student Activities and Program Development Anthony Manno and Assistant Director of Career Services John Quint are organizing and overseeing the event. Quint said the expo will be more relaxed than a job fair. Students don’t even need to bring resumes. The goal is to showcase on-campus opportunities to students who don’t know what job openings exist or how to take advantage of them, he said.

“We want to get rid of the ‘I don’t know where to go, and I don’t know where the jobs are,’” Quint said. “We want students to be well informed on who hires, what those jobs look like when they’re looking to apply, and where can they look at those things.”

The idea for the expo came from the Student Leadership Workshop held at the end of the 2015-2016 school year. The workshop participants, overseen by Manno and Quint, formulated the idea to help students develop in professional communication.

“It would be good practice for students just to see what it’s like to see someone on the other side of the table, you know, go up and introduce yourself, learn a little bit about what goes on in that department,” Quint said. “It would be good practice for a more formal job fair.”

Manno and Quint have been working steadily since January to bring the On-Campus Expo from the drawing board to reality. The entire process hasn’t been easy, though, they said. The team struggled convincing college employers of the expo’s merit in advertising campus positions.

“Convincing some of our colleagues on campus that it was going to be a worthwhile thing took a little bit of doing,” Quint said. “It’s new and it’s in the middle of the day, which is hard sometimes, especially if a professor is teaching classes or a staff member has meetings.”

Although Manno and Quint have done most of the legwork, Student Affairs Mentors will be available during the expo to help students find department supervisors and representatives as well as help students with tips on approaching potential employers at job fairs.

“We believe it will greatly impact the student employment dynamic on campus,” Manno said in an email. “When I was a student, I didn’t know what jobs were available and felt a bit lost during the process. The expo is here to help alleviate that.”