UNO Career Fair at Baxter Arena

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October 4th, 2016

160223_acdccareerfair_050aThe University of Nebraska Omaha’s Academic and Career Development Center is hosting their annual career fair on Thursday.


KVNO’s Senior Radio Correspondent Ryan Robertson spoke with Cathy Pettid, the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, about the fair. Listen to the interview now, or read the transcription below.

RR: Cathy tell me a little about the career fair?  How many vendors are going to be there? Who all is invited?

CP: Everyone is invited. This event is for first year students all the way through our alumni. We’re going to have over 110 employers represented at the Career Fair representing a wide variety of industries. We have Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, hospitality industry, science and technology. Really we feel like there’s something for everyone. And these companies are looking for all majors. There will be full-time opportunities, part-time job opportunities, and certainly internship opportunities. And honestly if someone isn’t quite looking for a job right now, we still encourage them to come and check it out, because then they’ll know what’s going on for future opportunities.

RR: What kind of materials do I need to bring as a job seeker?

CP: Great question. We’re asking for students to bring their resumes and we have a career corner set up at the career fair for last minute prep opportunities. We certainly aren’t going to critique a resume right there, but we’re going to help students feel comfortable in what we call their “elevator speech”, which they’ll go up to a potential employer and have about twenty or thirty seconds to introduce themselves, say a little bit about what their skills are, their interest, and figure out if that opportunity is a good match. Additionally all the companies have bio’s on the ACDC website. So anybody interested in attending the event can click on our website, take a look at those descriptions of the companies, and also what that company is looking for in terms of a potential prospect.

RR: What’s the ACDC website?

CP: For that ACDC website, unomaha.edu/ACDC. And we have a lot of information, not only about how you can prepare for the fair but also about the career fair itself. We’re also encouraging students to pre-register for the fair. It does a couple of things. It will pre-generate their name tag, also it allows the students to be entered into a drawing for a lot of different prizes including a $100 book voucher from the UNO bookstore. Now pre-registration is not required, but we’re certainly encouraging our students to do that.

RR: The fair is this Thursday from 10am to 3pm correct?

CP: 11am to 3pm at the Baxter Arena. Free parking. It’s very easy to get there. There’s shuttle routes that are on the ACDC website as well as parking information. Really it’s a fantastic venue for this event and everyone is really excited. Last year we had over 700 students there and we’re expecting that and many, many more (this year).

RR: Cathy you said you’re not going to be giving resume critiques on site, but what are some quick tips that you can give job seekers about their resume?

CP: Yeah well first of all come into ACDC ahead of time. We have walk in resume reviews and we will sit down and talk to a student and an alum about making it the sharpest document as possible. We do encourage our students to have one page resumes. Sometimes they need two, but for purposes of a career fair to keep it short, succinct with your most relevant job experience at the top and moving down. Of course have your education; either what you anticipate your graduation date to be or if you’ve graduated of course what that graduation date was. Have good contact information, make sure that you’re checking your email address and it isn’t something that might embarrass you if someone would use that e-mail address. Students sometimes get creative in what they use, so we tell students keep it professional and also if they’re listing their cell phone–which most students do–to make sure that your cellphone is set up to receive messages and that the message that you leave is again appropriate for professionals to be calling and leaving you a message.

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