SJMC’s career fair a hit with students, recruiters

By Justin Broome

With December graduation quickly approaching many USC students have only one thing on their minds: getting a job. This can seem like an overwhelming task, but for more than 200 students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications the school’s career fair was a good head start.

Employers from all over North and South Carolina were on hand Thursday, Oct. 25, for the annual event. Seventy recruiters representing 58 companies attended the career fair, as smartly dressed Gamecocks from a variety of media specializations made contacts with employers ranging from newspapers and broadcast companies to advertising and public relations firms.

This event was held in the Strom Thurmond Wellness Center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and included a catered lunch for the recruiters as well as a panel discussion on how media professionals deal with diversity-related issues in today’s digital age.

Several students received job offers and internships based on their interviews at the career fair.

Nick Steyn, a graduate student working on his master’s degree in mass communications, interviewed with sports management companies. He said he hopes contacts he made will help him find a job in the field following his December graduation. “Hopefully I’ll get a call back,” Steyn said. “I got to talk to a lot of recruiters in my field. My dream job is definitely to work in sports after graduation.”

Jason Reppy was at the career fair representing the SCANA Corp. and looking for prospects with editing experience. “We are basically here looking for a copy writing intern for our marketing department, someone with print or PR experience,” he said. “There are a couple of prospects that we are looking at so this was definitely worthwhile.”

Reppy said the career fair is an easy way to meet potential employees. “It’s a great set up,” he said. “There are a lot of great companies here and they really had a great turnout.”

Sara Wagoner and Jordan Frye of the American Junior Golf Association came to the career fair to find communications interns for the association’s spring and summer programs. “We are looking for people who can write AP style and love to be around other people,” Frye said. “We’ve had some great candidates today.”

Wagoner agreed that the event put employers in touch with talented students. “Everybody we talked to today seemed qualified so far,” she said. “Everyone has been really professional.”

Frye also attended the USC Career Blitz in September. “We were just talking about how great this set up was to have all these interviews set up and ready to go,” she said.

“And then to have the open hour later this afternoon -- anyone who didn’t get to talk to us has the chance to come and check us out – was ideal.”

This year’s event marked the fifth consecutive year that the SJMC has held the event.

Justin Broome is a senior print journalism student from Blacksburg, S.C. Broome covered South Carolina politics and the 2008 presidential race for schotline.com. He also interned with South Carolinians for Responsible Government in summer 2007. Broome hopes to work in politics after graduation in Dec. 2007.