The Raabe College of Pharmacy held a career fair on Nov. 1 to allow students to form connections with future potential employers. Several opportunities are available such as residencies, internships, and full-time job offers.
The fifth- and sixth-year students go through all the booths from 9:00 am to 10:00 am. This allows them to meet with potential future job sites and residencies. During this time, they can schedule interviews for later that day and to eat lunch with their potential employers.
The open fair was from 10:00 am to 11:45 am. This time was meant for all pharmacy students to meet with the booths the upperclassmen previously met with. This is when the younger students have the opportunity to network with potential summer internships and communicate with some of the biggest local pharmacies.
The main purpose of the fair is to provide networking opportunities for students can develop. Chris Pfaff, a second-year pharmacy student said, “The career fair was an opportunity to get to know companies in the area that are hiring interns and also getting to know what those intern opportunities are.” For Chris, the goal was to find an internship to link into a successful career down the line, saying, “It is a great way to jump start our careers.”
Despite an incentive to start a new career, a major drawback pulled back several students from going. Nate Efstation said, “I chose not to go because there were no realistic opportunities for out of state students.” Not only did some out-of-state students chose not to go but so did some in-state students choose not to attend as well due to the locations being present not being close enough to the students.
The career fair is a consistent way for students to network with potential future employers. Even if some students have no purpose to attend the fair, everyone has something they can gain from it.