Career Fair Disappoints Many

Students who attended the Office of Career Services (OCS) Career Forum last Friday found fewer frisbees, cups, and other corporate insignia-marked freebies than were available at the event last year.

OCS held its annual Career Forum on Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Gordon Track and Tennis Center. The event has a reputation for free items, as well as job opportunities, from corporate, government and non-profit recruiters.

But this year’s forum fell far short of students’ expectations.

“There wasn’t as much cool stuff as last year,” said John J. Park ’03, who attended both Friday’s fair and the 2000 OCS Career Forum.

With optimism about the job market of recent years now muted, Harvard students said they are noticing the slowed economy’s effects on their own career prospects.

In addition to a lack of free enticements, students found recruiters had fewer job openings available.

Students often found that many recruiters were looking for particular sets of skills to fill certain job openings. Technical skills were in demand, and students who lacked those skills found fewer opportunities.

Sophomores also found recuiters less interested. Jinna Chung ’04, who attended with a group of fellow sophomores, said the standard comment they received from recruiters was, “No opportunities for sophomores this year. Last year, maybe, but this year, probably not.”

Some companies chose not to send representatives to the Career Forum at all.

Disney, which sent representatives to the Career Forum in recent years, was noticeably absent from the event.

Students at the Career Forum also said the location of the the event in the Gordon Track and Tennis Center was not ideal for the event.

The temperature rose to unusally high levels inside the building, and many students, especially those wearing suit jackets, were perspiring as they talked to recruiters.

Some students also noted the lack of diversity among firms represented at the Career Forum.

Although the OCS recruiting website said 16 career areas and 112 companies were present, students said the event was limited, with too great a focus on investment banking, consulting and financial services, without offering a wider array of career options.

Though some public service organizations, such as Teach for America, were recruiting at the fair, they drew far smaller crowds than areas such as investment banking and consulting.

Some students were concerned with the image the Career Forum presented of what life after graduation should be. Shellen Wu ’02 said the Career Forum “just reinforced the conception that there are only these specific channels—consulting, I-banking—and there’s nothing else out there.”

She, like other students who were disatisfied with narrowness of options presented at the career fair, said she plans to conduct a broader independent job search.