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Career fair welcomes 102 employers, skews towards business and management

Photo of many students playing various outdoor games on a snow covered lawn in front of a brick building.
Students gather outside of Dillon Gym, a Campus Rec facility.
Candace Do / The Daily Princetonian

This fall’s semi-annual career fair is set to be a packed one — 102 employers from 37 different industries are listed as attending, according to the event’s listing on Handshake.

Employers attending include familiar companies who have come for the past several career fairs, including the Federal Bureau Investigations (FBI) and Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO), as well as some well-known but relatively new faces, including J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

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Krystyn Kitto, the Senior Associate Director of Employer Engagement at the Center for Career Development, told The Daily Princetonian that the career fair is one of the many ways students can meet potential employers.

“We partner with a wide range of employers in arts and entertainment, STEM, communications and media, business, social impact, and more,” Kitto wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’ “We also focus on building relationships with organizations with a demonstrated practice of hiring, developing, and retaining diverse talent.”

An analysis by the ‘Prince’ broke down the companies attending this semester’s career fair, as well as previous fairs. A data set provided by the Center for Career Development divides companies into larger sectors, of which “Business” consistently has the most attendees, followed by “Nonprofit, Social assistance, Government & Law.” 

The 102 companies attending this year’s fair make it the largest by far since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes 49 companies who have not attended the previous two career fairs.

The industries most represented at this year’s fair are “Investment / Portfolio Management”, with 16 companies, as well as “Non-profit, other” and “Management Consulting” each with 11 companies.

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The overwhelming majority of the companies attending are also headquartered in New Jersey or New York, with 31 each.

“For some employers, proximity to campus is an important factor in whether they are able to attend in-person events, though the Center for Career Development facilitates opportunities for students to engage with employers from across the globe,” Kitto wrote.

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Kitto emphasized that not all employers that the University works with attend career fairs, and urged students to make an appointment with a career advisor at the Center for Career Development.

“At the end of the day, students should know that the Center for Career Development supports undergraduate and graduate students of all years, interests, and in all stages of exploration,” Kitto wrote. “We encourage all students to meet with a career adviser to help them put a personalized plan together that meets their needs and interests.”

The companies at the career fair skew significantly towards the business and management sector. A former student worker at the Center for Career Development told the ‘Prince’ that they were told to take listings related to teaching jobs off of Handshake, the Center's job portal, when they worked there.

“Therefore, any postings for teaching positions were not permitted to be published for students to view and apply to through Handshake,” the source wrote.

The Center for Career Development, however, denied this in an email sent to the ‘Prince.’

“The Center for Career Development does not remove listings based on assumptions about student interest, in education or any field,” Kitto wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’ “For example, there are currently hundreds of teaching and education jobs in Handshake. Princetonians have a strong interest in career paths in education.”

Kitto emphasized that while the Center for Career Development ensures that organizations are not fraudulent, among other safeguards, “industry is not a category used to vet.” 

“The Center for Career Development is committed to ensuring open and equitable access to a wide range of opportunities, across all industries and sectors, for all undergraduate and graduate students,” Kitto wrote.

Students will have the opportunity to hear from the companies at the 2023 HireTigers Fall Career Fair which will take place on Friday, Sept. 15 from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Dillon Gym.

Charlie Roth is a head Data editor for the ‘Prince.’

Elaine Huang is a head Data editor for the ‘Prince.’

Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.