This year BYU-Hawaii’s annual Career Fair was a little different—it took place in the Aloha Center Ballroom, instead of the Cannon Activities Center, and was received well by students and employers alike.
The location change emphasized how many people were in attendance. Taylor Smart, a senior in psychology from Washington, said, “This year’s Career Fair was smaller then I thought it would be. But the fact that it was small gave me the feeling of having more time to chat with the businesses I really wanted to, instead of feeling rushed to go see more and more. Also, having it in the ballroom and not the CAC made it seem more personable, and not so open and lost as with the entire CAC.”

The close proximity of the booths gave both the recruiters and students energy to talk about jobs and future careers. The sign-in booth was easy and quick; a student punched in their ID number and was off. For Champ Vinitnantharat, a senior in psychology and business management from Washington, “It ended too early.”

If you were able to make it, not only were there cookies and punch, but some amazing companies as well. A new participant at the Career Fair was Nordstrom, a company that has been around for more then a hundred years. What started as a shoe company has become one of the leading clothing stores in the United States. Their recruiters were looking for summer interns to work in their department stores whose career goals were focused on fashion.

Target and GEICO were also new to the Career Fair, and Northwestern Mutual Financial Network was looking for associates to help gain access to new markets for their mutual fund business. Also there were recruiters from Goldman Sachs, recruiting for their summer analyst position.Companies offered everything from free key-chain flashlights to erasable highlighters to attract students to their booths.

Some international students felt disappointed, however, despite the free coffee mug for doing push-ups and light-up pencil toppers. Kyle Wong, a senior in business management and accounting from Hong Kong, said, “I feel like it was pointless for international students to go to career fair since most of the companies there are looking to only hire people that are eligible to work at the U.S.”

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