The Spring Job and Internship Fair at Salt Lake Community College took place at the Taylorsville Redwood campus on March 13. Hundreds of attendees and more than 60 employers participated in the event.
The Career Services office hosts the fair twice a year, near the end of the fall and spring semesters, to meet the post-graduation and job-seeking concerns of SLCC students. According to Alen Hajric, recruitment events coordinator at SLCC, the event’s primary purpose is to give students as many opportunities as possible to find a job while still completing their coursework.
Hajric said the fair affirms to students that studying at a community college will still provide them with the same access and opportunities as larger universities.
“You can find any of [the] opportunities that you find at the bigger schools … right here at SLCC,” Hajric said. “That’s what’s really important to us.”
The job fair also serves to familiarize job-seeking students with the processes of applying to and communicating with future employers.
According to the director of the Career Services office, Ella Aho, employers who come to the fair understand how difficult it can be for recently graduated students to find jobs, especially those who lack experience in a recruiting environment. Attending employers at the twice-annual fair thus strives to encourage students to communicate and ask questions surrounding recruitment topics.
“I’ve seen students walk out of here with more confidence,” Aho said.
Many undergraduate students take their first steps into the job market through this event. Mohammed Ismail, a former SLCC student who majored in computer science, attended this semester’s job fair to seek employment opportunities and to expand his knowledge about the job market.
Ismail said that, while he did find a job after graduating, it was unrelated to his field of study. So, Ismail returned to SLCC for the fair, where he spent time looking for something that aligned more with his skills and interests.
Ismail added that, even after graduating from SLCC, he regularly receives support from the Career Services office. He said they often send him information on job openings and career events happening at SLCC, which he is grateful to receive.
“It’s like they want me [to have] success in my life … They have continued to send me emails [even] after I graduated,” Ismail said.
To learn more about career services at SLCC, visit the office’s webpage.
