Employers, students attend career fair

Companies and employers representing a wide range of industries came to the Joyce Center on Thursday night for the Career Center’s Winter Career and Internship Fair. Students of all class years attended the fair, which featured dozens of employers including Deloitte, Abercrombie and Fitch, PricewaterhouseCoopers, General Electric and many others.

BP representative and Notre Dame alumna Therese Anderson said the career fair offers the opportunity for employers to recruit students from a variety of backgrounds and majors.

“We come here because BP is huge," she said. "We have so many different business divisions and different areas that we have a need for engineers; we have a need for business majors; we have a need for all different majors and all different students, and we always find such great students here, so we keep coming back."

Anderson said the career fair is a great opportunity for students to explore job opportunities and find jobs they love.

“I work for BP; I’ve worked there since I graduated, and I found my job here at the career fair, and that was 13 years ago,” she said.

Sophomore James Pratt said he attended the career fair to improve his networking skills and gain exposure to different types of jobs and employers.

“I wanted to gain the experience necessary for looking for opportunities as I advance in years here at the University,” he said. “Being a sophomore, I wanted to get a sneak peak as to what type of opportunities might be in my future.”

In addition to networking skills, J. Cameron Wiethoff, a representative for the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, said communication skills are crucial in securing jobs and internships.

“Having social and personal communication skills is essential to be successful in relationships,” he said. “With our company in particular it just helps if you know how to make relationships, nourish those relationships.”

Wiethoff said the Cancer Treatment Centers of America has a history of recruiting Notre Dame students because Notre Dame fosters the development of communication skills in students.

“We’ve had a lot of success with Notre Dame students,” he said.

Anderson said the most desirable students and prospective employees are those who appear confident and composed.

“Confidence is huge. If you know what you want to do, that comes across in the way you present yourself," she said.