[polldaddy poll=8316686]
On Wednesday, September 17, the Ball State Career Center hosted the Cardinal Job Fair at Worthen Arena. 143 employers were on campus.
Did you go? And if not, why is that?
What do employers want?
We spoke with a few English majors who said that, after taking a look at this Employee Guidebook, they decided that the Job Fair was for business and other pre-professional majors.
Notice how many employers list that they are looking for “All Majors.”
- Ask an English major if they interpret that to mean, “We want English majors!” they’d say, “No.”
- But ask employers if they mean, “We want English majors!,” they’d say, “Yes.”
Confusing, isn’t it?
Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills
One recruiter at the job fair said that his company can teach “hard skills” (the kind of thing you learn in a pre-professional major), but what they REALLY need are people with soft skills, such as teamwork, communication, and flexibility–the kind of skills English majors have in abundance.
Here’s a post from a few years back about English majors at the Job Fair.
We want your feedback
- Take our poll above.
- Take a look at the Employee Guidebook. What do you think of those jobs? What kind of employers would you like to meet with on campus?
- Before the Job Fair, we promoted the event on social media, sending out daily reminders. How else can we get the word out to English majors that the Job Fair is indeed something for them?
Comments:
Sadly, my reasons for not attending were purely logistical. I really wanted to go but had class virtually the entire time the job fair was running. I had an hour at one point but was worried that wouldn’t be enough time to really take advantage of it (considering that I’d also have to get there and then get to my next class).
I definitely knew about it, though, from the BSU English reminders.
I went and actually there weren’t many jobs open for English Majors except secretary and call center work. I felt a bit let down because of it.
Oh Tabitha, this makes us very sad. Please continue to come to our events, because the truth is, many of those employers who said they were open to “all majors” would have loved to talk to you!