Fairness For The Job Fair

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Bradley U chapter.

I wanted to go to college for lots of reasons. I wanted the experience of living away from home, while still being around lots of people. I wanted to make lifelong friends. I wanted to learn, not just what’s in my major, but anything I’m interested in (yay for liberal arts!). There are a million reasons why people go to higher education, but I would say the only common reason is “getting a job”.

Job and Internship fairs are an incredibly important step in this process. Aside from actually getting a position, it gives students the chance to network with potential employers and practice soft skills, like talking to strangers (which always feels awkward, even for the most extroverted people around campus).

Which is why I was disappointed in the Job and Internship Fair last week. I was excited to go, suit on and resumes in hand. But when I looked for jobs related to my major, UX Design, I found…very little. There were about three companies offering internships or related internships. As a senior, I’m looking for full time jobs. When I asked a company that I had been told had full time positions, they said they didn’t. Sigh. Personally, the job fair has never led to an opportunity for me. Both internships I’ve gotten have come applying to hundreds of positions on LinkedIn and plain good luck. That doesn’t mean I regret going, it’s still really good practice. It does, however, mean I feel a little frustrated walking around and not seeing anything for me.

But at least my major had internships. I had several friends from other disciplines decide not to go at all because there was nothing for them. I had friends go up to companies they were told needed their majors, only to be turned away and told they weren’t actually needed. For a liberal arts school, and a job fair advertised for all majors, the fair sure felt geared towards engineering, accounting, and little else.

My major, UX Design, is part of the Interactive Media (IM) department (UX Design, Animation, Game Art, Interactive Media, Game Design). The IM department is one of the fastest growing departments on campus. People are coming to Bradley just to learn from the IM professors. It’s a great program, and it’s also very profitable for Bradley to have a lot of IM students. There wasn’t a single job or internship offered for any major besides UX. And UX Design had little offerings in the first place. That simply isn’t right.

I know the job market is tough right now. I know companies aren’t willing to do the extra work and recruit people in person. I sympathize with the people working in the Career Center and elsewhere, it can’t be easy. But that doesn’t give Bradley permission to abandon its students. It is their job to get people jobs. I want more from this university, because its students are incredibly passionate, talented, and willing to work. Until there is an equitable experience, students across disciplines will feel left behind, because they are.