Students from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and Durham College (DC) are encouraged to come and network with employers at the job fair on Feb. 3, regardless of whether it results in an immediate job.
Canada’s Wonderland, City of Oshawa, electronics manufacturing company, Celestica and various police and fire services are among the 75 employers, recruiting in the areas of engineering, health care, IT and technology, among others.
DC’s Career Development outreach coordinator, Louise Stiles, says job fairs are moving away from the traditional ‘dress up and hand out resumes’ format and have become more of an opportunity to network. According to Stiles, campus recruiters understand students may stop by during the middle of their school day and aren’t expecting a three-piece suit or a resume, they just want to talk with students. She suggests that even if the company isn’t recruiting within a student’s area of interest, there is still value in coming to talk with the company’s recruiters.
“We just encourage, even if you’ve never heard of a company, to talk with them. Say ‘hey, I’m in this program, do you have that department?’ Just throw it out there and see what happens,” said Stiles. “Students should just be coming to this and learning to talk to strangers in a professional way.”
The job fair will feature booths for each of the employers, some bringing as many as six recruiters to speak with interested students. There will also be a ‘mentor lounge’, fitted with bar stools and white leather couches, where students will be able to speak one-on-one with former graduates and successful business people about their experiences.
Among the 10 mentors available are:
- DC alumnus Brandon Heard, the creative lead and co-founder of Oshawa-based graphic and web design company, Mediavandals
and
- Sunita Alves, professional engineer, certified life coach and founder of Engineer Your Life Coaching, a company created to help others find balance between their work and home lives based on strategies she developed from her own experiences.
Throughout the year there are various other part-time job fairs, but this is the only one of its kind that caters to both UOIT and DC students.
The job fair will be taking place on Feb. 3 at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre.
