The Signal

Issue date: 5/7/08 Section: Campus Life

Some students might have let their potential careers blow away when the wind participated in this year's career fair at California State University, Stanislaus April 30.

The fair, sponsored by Career Services Center, featured representatives from the Army, Fastenal Industrial and Construction Supplies, Patterson Unified School District, FBI, Park Rangers, Waste Management, Kendall School, Mary Kay, and other companies who came out looking for employees.

A workshop before the event helped prepare people for the career fair. There, students were encouraged to dress professionally and come with several copies of their resume, but these weren't cut and dry rules.

This advice prepared the students for some aspects of the job interviews in the quad, but most people were not prepared for the wind. Most of the employers said that the weather was the only downfall on the part of the career fair, but people cannot control the weather.

On the other hand, some employers preferred the windy conditions.

"The wind showed you how students are, based on how they dealt with the wind," Kristen Remlinger, independent beauty consultant for Mary Kay said. "If they don't complain and they roll with the punches you know they will be able to deal with different circumstances on the job."

Some students also passed by many potential careers because they felt that their degree did not fit with that job.

"A lot of people thought their degree doesn't match the company, but they need to understand that it doesn't have to be a 100 percent fit," John Cruz, operations improvement manager for Waste Management, said.

Cruz said a lot of people passed him thinking that he would just hire people to pick up garbage, but there is a front and a back of every company. Once he was able to talk to people they found there are many different careers within every company and he found some potential employees.

Some employers could not handle the wind and left early, which may have made them miss out on potential employees.

"I left to get some more resumes and by the time I got back a lot of people had already packed up and left," Cole Strickland, student at CSU Stanislaus said.

However, others were very happy with the event though and stayed the whole time.

"I love the location of CSU Stan, a lot of former students come and teach for us," Barbara McCleskey, human resources for Patterson Unified School District said.

Remlinger said she was really excited because she had never been on this campus before and "it was really neat to see the student life and the business life and the dynamics of the two work together."

The companies that stayed said they found a lot of potential employees and some of the students who came said they found a lot of careers they would have never thought of before that day.

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