Spring Career Fair

by Travis Rocha

Christopher Newport recently held its bi-annual career fair. This semester was my first time going and I am extremely upset at myself for not going sooner. Essentially, loads of companies send representatives to campus and students are given the opportunity to mingle with them in a professional, yet conversational environment. It was as great experience and I was able to learn a lot.

The companies present are extremely eager to talk to students. In addition, many (if not all) of them come with job and internship opportunities for students. They are willing to take your resume and put you in touch with their hiring departments.

I spoke with several companies and handed my resume to plenty of them. The first of which was Smithfield, a food company. If I’m completely honest, I was drawn to them because they had some insanely cool wares on display. They had a cute pig stress toy, key chains, card holders and the like. The representative I spoke with was very receptive and I quickly lost interest in the knick knacks. We discussed internship opportunities and she asked for my resume. I happily handed it to her!

From there on, I visited a news station which is a career path I am deeply passionate about. I have always been drawn to journalism, but the reps I spoke too widened my perspective to a myriad of opportunities in the industry. I similarly handed them a resume and they handed me an application. The list goes on and on; I left the career fair with all of my resumes given out.

I personally have several graduated friends who found their jobs through the career fair. Knowing this, I was very optimistic when talking to the representatives because I knew that they do seriously consider Christopher Newport students. It was great to see so many people at the fair. It quickly became clear to me that no one is at Christopher Newport simply to goof off. Everyone who is here is seriously committed to professional and academic success. My hope is that I hear back about an internship opportunity soon for the summer soon. Regardless, I’m very grateful I was able to share this experience with my peers!