Career Services launches alternative career fair

Career Services launched an alternative career fair called the HireTigers Meetup onFriday. Executive Director of Career Services Pulin Sanghvi said that this career fair will provide the model for all future University career fairs.

Sanghvi noted that his agency made a departure from previous career fairs by using student responses to proactively select every company represented.Accordingto a Career Services announcement, participants in the HireTigers Meetup included nonprofit,arts and entertainment, communications, marketing, advertising, publishing, manufacturing,business and startup organizations.

Sanghvi explained that, at previous fairs, Career Services staff felt that the setting of Dillon Gymnasium made students feel herded, uncomfortable and hot, while recruiter booths createdbarriers and led to short and transactional conversations.The HireTigers Meetup took place in the courtyard outside Career Services and also differed from past fairs by including panels. These panels discussednonprofit and government work, unexpected positions within well-known companies,careers in the arts and debunking the connection between major and career.

The fair introduced a new configuration to encourage meaningfulconversations between students and employers around round tables. Additionally, color-codedtablecloths labeled employers by industry.

Sanghvi said that he heard from students, alumni and employers that the HireTigers Meetuphelped them connect with one another much more effectively than a traditional careerfair did. As a result, he explained, Career Services will continue investing in similar events rather thanreverting to the traditional career fair model.

All of the students and employers interviewed for this article described the HireTigers Meetupas a generally positive experience.

Anya Lewis-Meeks ’15 said that she came to the fair to find job opportunities outside ofconsulting and finance.

“What I liked most, aside from the variety, was that they brought back a lot of Princetonalums, including someone who graduated last year who could talk to not only what itmeans to apply for a job in your senior year, but also to manage that with the Princeton-particular struggle of doing your thesis and stuff,” she said.

Siobhan Galligan ’13, a recruiter from Trinity Partners, LLC, noted that as an alumna she couldanswer many University-specific questions.

“A lot of Princetonians go to New York, and one of our offices is outside of Boston,so often I’m able to help talk to people who hadn’t considered leaving New York or arethinking about all their friends go to New York,” she said. “Definitely, there’s a lot ofconversation around how academics at Princeton — the certificate programs or majors — how that feeds into particular careers.”

The HireTigers Meetup was very comfortable andrelatively informal, according to Spencer Rodriguez ’15. However, Danielle Martin ’15 noted that the tables felt similar torecruiter booths.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Lori Bin ’17 expressed satisfaction with the number of career options represented and theoverall ease of navigation, but criticized several inconvenient aspects of the fair.

“Some businesses didn’t have signs, so you had to look around and really search forwho you were talking to. It was pretty dark inside and dim, so the visibility was kind ofsubpar,” she said.

Echoing Bin’s concerns, Donna Norton of Burlington Stores said that she would haveappreciated a standing signpost for her organization so that students could identify hertable from a distance.

David Beavers, a representative of Environment America, said the interest level thatstudents showed in his niche organization was much higher than he had previously experienced. Headded that the arrangement of employers by industry type helped him find candidates.

“[It] just really helped us see, ‘These other students talked to them, they’re kind of like us, let’spull them over here too,’ ” he said, adding that he expects many candidates for full-timepositions to come from among the students he met at the Meetup.

According to Sanghvi, Career Services staff will meet with studentsto hear other suggestions for improvement. Associate Director of Communications Outreach for Career Services Evangeline Kubu added that she will circulate asurvey this week to receive feedback from students and employers who participated inthe fair.

Career Services will host another large event later this year dedicated to internships withsix smaller theme-based events that will explore specific industries.