Sunday, September 20, 2015

Career fair lacks large corporations [Edited]

The semester is well underway and many students who expect to graduate in December are actively seeking jobs. One place professors and Career Services encourage students to go is the career fair. It was advertised that over 100 employers would be at the fair, but it was not made clear that some of the available positions do not require a college degree.

Some of the employers included Chick-fil-A, Walgreens, Alorica, Dillon’s, Sears and Sherwin-Williams. While some may argue that many management positions prefer a college degree, it is not a requirement for most positions. There is little room for advancement in local management roles. Some may also point out that there are corporate positions available within these companies, which is true, but take note: Chick-fil-a is headquartered in Atlanta, Walgreens and Sears in Illinois, Alorica in California, and Sherwin Williams in Ohio. However, the recruiters at the career fair are not seeking people for their corporate offices, they are seeking people to fill their lower-paying, local, entry-level jobs.

In a way, having a sparse selection of employers at the career fair devalues the degrees offered at Washburn. Cerner, Garmin, Sprint, and Burns and McDonnell were not at the Washburn fair. Due to “low student interest,” large employers from other cities are not at the fair. Career Services suggests that students interested in opportunities with large, Kansas City-based companies seek out career fairs at other universities. 

While the selection of regional employers was limited, some notable Topeka companies were in attendance, such as BNSF, Westar Energy, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Payless ShoeSource, Security Benefit, Advisors Excel, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition. If students are looking to stay local, the Washburn Career Fair is an opportunity to have a worthwhile experience. If students want to start their professions elsewhere, there are additional career and hiring fairs at Kansas State University, The UnIversity of Kansas, and TechWeek KC. 

15 comments:

  1. This is a lot better and flows a lot better as well! Good job. This has good content as well!

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  2. Great edits! You basically did all the edits I recommended.

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  3. The paragraphs flow much better with the new edits. However, the headline still needs to be edited to include an active verb and the story needs to be re-formatted to consist of shorter sentences and simpler thoughts. Nonetheless the topic is still highly relevant and interesting. Good choices!

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  4. Other than a few very minor capitalization errors (the "a" in Chic-fil-A was not capitalized the second time it was mentioned and the "i" in "University of Kansas" was capitalized when it needn't be) this flowed much better than the original! Great job!

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  5. I thought this was a great edit! It flowed well and many of the awkward phrases were corrected. Well done!

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  6. Your paragraphs flowed better in this than in the original! There are a couple spelling errors but other than that I thought you did great!

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  7. Your paragraphs flowed better in this than in the original! There are a couple spelling errors but other than that I thought you did great!

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  8. "University" ... was a great article .. just little mistakes but it is overall better than the first draft.

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  9. Great edit! Very interesting article.

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  10. I have an idea for the headline, "Career fair disappoints students." Just a thought. But great edit everything really flowed and was easy to read.

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  11. I liked the edit of the headline. Still conveys the point but makes it sound less opinionated. Good job!

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  12. I liked the edit of the headline. Still conveys the point but makes it sound less opinionated. Good job!

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  13. The i in university is capitalized, so I would lowercase that, but other than that, great job editing!

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  14. I think your edits made the story flow better and I like your headline.

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  15. Nice edits! It would be great if there was more information on other career fairs throughout Kansas.

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