An Event for a Future

SAN MARCOS- Texas State University’s Career Services department hosted a bi-annual Job and Internship Expo Wednesday, March 24 at Strahan Coliseum.

The expo is hosted by Career Services twice a year to get Texas State University students and alumni together with potential employers.

According to LaTonya Henry, assistant director of Career Services, 700 invitations to attend the expo are sent to corporations and businesses. Of these 700 invited companies, 71 attended.

“The ones who respond are the ones who are looking to actually hire,” said Henry. “Most of them come here because they want to recruit Bobcats.

Many of the recruiters at the expo were Texas State alumni themselves. Keri Mitchell, district manager from Ryder Logistics, graduated from Texas State University and found his job with Ryder at a past expo.

“I was on the other side of all this 12 months ago,” said Mitchell. “I seriously came to the event thinking I could just hand out some resumes and maybe make a contact or two, but no, I actually got a job.”

The expo is organized in full by the Career Services department. The directors send out information about the event to all the employers on the Jobs4cats database.

The other side of Career Services job is reaching out to students and alumni. The expo depends on the students and alumni showing up. The more students, the more inclined companies are to attend future Texas State University events.

Chris Jones, career advisor with career services, is one employee who participates in this outreach. “I send out emails, make phone calls and host events like the one we had in the quad yesterday to get people to show up,” said Jones.

Jones said his goal was to get 1500 students and alumni to attend the expo, but usually 900 is the most that will show up.

The success of the expo also depends on student acceptance. Kyle Hinojosa, 24-year-old Electronic Media major, didn’t get what he expected but still enjoyed the event.

“There weren’t as many media outlets as I wanted,” said Hinojosa. “I was expecting more newspapers and PR firms. It seemed like an over load of finance and business oriented jobs.”

Hinojosa went on to express satisfaction in getting his name out amongst the employers at the expo. Handing out resumes was a popular practice for the evening.

The event called for professional attire, although not required.