Students gathered in the Gantcher Center on Friday for the annual Tufts Career Fair, exploring a broad range of employment, internship and volunteer opportunities.
Over 900 students, ranging from freshmen to those in graduate programs, attended this year's fair, according to Director of Career Services Jean Papalia. Papalia called the event a success, citing the high number of students that attended and the variety of their class years.
The 95 employers in attendance represented a variety of fields, including health care, government, engineering, education, finance and the non-profit sector. They offered several different employment options, including full-time jobs, internships and volunteer positions.
Thoughts of the gloomy economic climate hung in the air as students paraded through vendor tables. Many attended the fair with the recession in mind.
"I'm here to find a job," senior Akrati Agarwal said. "The economy is really bad right now and it's hard to get a job, so I'm a little worried."
"Considering today's current job market, it is always good to start early and see what's out there," junior Jaya Birch-Desai said.
Multiple employer representatives told the Daily that their firms had not yet finalized the number of candidates they expected to hire and were also unsure of the number of positions they had available.
Danielle Martin-Alston, corporate paralegal coordinator for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, said that her firm did not yet know how many new employees it could hire because it did not know how many of its current employees are going to law school.
Papalia encouraged Tufts seniors to attend the Just in Time Fair this spring, held specifically for seniors, when employers will have a better idea of the number of positions available within their company.
Employers who participated in the fair were more than satisfied with student turnout. Maki Park, director of Outreach and Administration at WorldTeach, a non-profit organization, noticed a significant increase in the level of student interest in her organization's volunteer opportunities compared to past years.
"I know at this time most students are looking for paying jobs, so it was surprising to see so much interest in service opportunities," Park said.
Major firms like Fidelity Investments and nonprofits such as Teach For America saw crowds of students waiting to speak with a representatives. Students expressed doubts that attending the fair would lead to an actual job offer because of the high level of competition at Tufts for employment.
"Seeing all the students in line makes me think how many kids are applying for the job," Birch-Desai said. "Tufts has a lot of smart students."
Students from different class years expressed different goals for the fair. Most seniors were interested in a full-time position beginning after graduation, while many juniors searched for internship opportunities and underclassmen looked for an educational experience outside of the classroom.
Agarwal said the fair piqued her interest in specific companies. She initially doubted how helpful the fair would be, but left Gantcher hopeful about her employment prospects.
"I'm optimistic about job opportunities after being at this fair," Agarwal said.
Sophomore Aisha Farley came to the fair hoping to explore and develop new interests. She found a policy division on environmental health particularly interesting.
"I definitely wouldn't have learned about it if it weren't for the fair," she said.
A few of the employer booths were manned by Tufts alumni who received job offers after applying for positions they had learned about at a previous Tufts Career Fair.
There are two more career fairs coming up later this year. In addition to April's senior job fair, Career Services will hold their annual Science and Technology Fair in February. Papalia encouraged students to attend as many career events as possible in order to explore a broad range of opportunities and employers.
