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The Pennsylvania State University takes up a whole zip code, not including its off campus housing. So it is no surprise that it has one of the largest alumni associations.
“Penn State has the largest Alumni Association in the country with more than 760,000 Penn State graduates.” Penn State’s Smeal College of Business website states.
With that large chunk of an alumni network, comes a lot of opportunities for Penn State students looking for a job. One example of this is the endless amounts of career fairs the University holds.
At the start of the fall semester, there is a campus-wide career fair that occurs in the University Park/’s campus Bryce Jordan Center. In the university’s emails to its students, they call it “The largest collegiate career fair in the country.”
The campus wide career fair spans over a period of three days and covers around four hours every day where students can go and speak to recruiters.
There is also a virtual option available for students studying at other campuses or who are not able to attend any of the in-person dates.
However, this is barely scratching the surface of the career fairs that occur at the university. Each college in the university has its own career fair. Some even have multiple.
The Bellasario College of Communications has two career fairs throughout the spring semester. The first is titled “JobExpo.comm” and occurs in their University Park’s Hub Robeson Center.
This career fair had over 55 companies that were actively recruiting whether that be for full-time jobs or internships.
However, the second career fair occurs in New York City. The College of Communications offers students the opportunity to be bused to and from New York City to a career fair for just Penn State students.
Students also have the option to attend a luncheon during the fair to discuss things with recruiters and get first-hand experience of talking in a professional setting.
The College of Communications also offers preparations for these specific events, for instance, resume review, consultations on what companies will be attending and mock interviews.
Along with this, the Smeal College of Business has major-specific career fairs. Some of these are Supply chain management and marketing.