Sacred Heart University held their annual Internship and Career Fair on Oct. 23 from 1-4 p.m., however, unlike previous years this fair was held virtually.
Amazon and Danbury Mission Technology are two examples of companies that participated in the fair. There was a waiting line to enter each chat room with a representative, but everyone was allowed 10 minutes to talk with the employers once they were allowed in.
Many students were concerned about not having a face-to-face interaction with company representatives. Junior John Garvey was worried he would not be able to get his name out like he would in person, although, he said, “I feel confident.”
Once students registered online using their Sacred Heart email, they could attend the fair and network with any company they were interested in speaking to. Students also had the opportunity to upload their resumes online.
“I’m hoping that from this career fair I can learn more about various career paths and hopefully gain insight on what I would like to pursue,” said Garvey. “I’m excited to talk to both large and small companies and see how they operate so then I can compare and contrast their varying differences.”
When asked how the pandemic may have affected their new hires, representative Crystal Smith said, “We are ramping up.”
Smith did not feel the positions were at a loss due to the pandemic because students will now be looking for internships and jobs in a virtual manner.
After attending the three-hour fair, Garvey said, “I think the fair ran smoothly with the waiting and chat rooms, but I was a little surprised when I entered the chat room in my button-down shirt just to realize there was no camera involved.”
After experiencing the virtual internship and career fair, students noted what they would do differently next time.
“Jot down some quick questions you have about the various companies. That way you can almost eliminate the possibility of freezing up and running out of things to say. For being a virtual career fair I think there’s barely any room for improvement, but involving a web camera might make both students and representatives feel more comfortable and personal,” said Garvey.
Garvey also said, “I wasn’t looking for anything in particular from this career fair but my main goal was to learn more about different companies and successfully network, which I believed I achieved.”
Overall, students had many takeaways from the internship and career fair. Continue to look out for more events like these through emails from careerdev@sacredheart.edu.
