CAMPUS: All-Majors Career Fair offers job opportunities
By Matteo Maximo Fernandez
Bridge Staff Writer
Published Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024
The Office of Career Services at TAMIU held its second and largest career fair of the fall semester—the All-Majors Career Fair. Following the On-Campus Student Employment Fair in September, the All Majors is open to the public, not just TAMIU students.
Career Services Administrative Associate IV Derrick Crooks described the Oct. 23 event as an opportunity for students of any major or degree to engage with a diverse pool of employers. The attendees, Crooks said, were just as varied as the employers. It was only a year ago Career Services made the decision to begin advertising the event to the public, leading to an attendance surge.
Though Crooks said the career fair was a success, he made it clear he wanted more.
“I want more people to come,” Crooks said. “I don’t want people to think that it’s just a career fair for TAMIU students. I want everyone to feel welcome, and I want more employers to join us. We had [more than] 30 employers this time, but I want [there] to be more.”
People, not just from Laredo, but Zapata, El Cenizo and other surrounding cities, come to check out the available job opportunities, which were in no shortage at the fair. Students of all classifications came to peruse the options: freshmen looking to better map their career paths, sophomores and juniors scouting for internships and seniors interested in graduate school—which had its own dedicated fair on Oct. 31.
Employers offering jobs with the city, state and federal government were present. From school districts, to banks, to grocery stores, there were booths to appeal to most careers. The most popular employers this time around were U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
TAMIU sophomore business administration major Matthew High attended the fair.
“Some recruiters were far more engaging than others,” High said, citing U.S. Customs and the FDIC as his favorites.
He considered the event “a good opportunity to get a better idea of what types of companies [he] should approach for internships and job opportunities both during [his] time in school and after.”
Crooks says an event like this opens TAMIU’s connections to other employers and encourages people to come and look at its student body and community base. The School Districts Fair on Nov. 13 is the next scheduled Career Services event. It is geared toward those interested in working for school districts.
Each of the four, the Student-Employment, All-Majors, Graduate and Professional School, and School Districts fairs are held each semester and are opportunities for those seeking to advance their professional lives.