Annual Spring Career Fair Welcomes 61 Employers to Campus
The annual Mercy College Career Fair drew 61 employers and almost 250 Mercy students to the Rotunda on the Dobbs Ferry Campus on March 14.
“We recognize that our students have so many outside factors at play — they're busy, they might be working, they might have family needs,” explained Sara Shepherd, Employer Relationship Manager at Mercy. “So, they're not always able to get in front of these opportunities on their own. The Career Fair helps by bringing employers to the same place at the same time.”
Employers recruited for jobs across seven primary “career communities” (or industries): Public Service, Law and Government; Human Services and Education; Science, Technology and Math; Media, Marketing and Communications; Accounting, Finance and Business; Clinical Healthcare; and Health and Wellness. These are the career communities that Mercy’s Career and Professional Development Office prioritizes based on Mercy’s academic programs.
Derek Napolitano ’19 has worked for IBM as an intern for the past six months and attended the Career Fair to recruit for the company: “I spoke with a lot of extremely bright students today who are all determined to get into a great company. Everyone at Mercy is really invested in getting students to where they want to be.”
The Career and Professional Development Office helped students prepare in the weeks leading up to the Career Fair. Some students attended workshops to hone their elevator pitches, for example. Others won new professional outfits when the office raffled off 40 tailored suits from Lord & Taylor at an event called The Big Suit Up.
Upon entering the Career Fair, students received a directory of participating employers and positions along with a padfolio to hold copies of their resumes. Then, they were free to walk around the Rotunda and speak with as many employers as they wanted in the two-hour time period. Westchester Talk Radio — an online radio station produced by Sharc Creative — added to the energy in the room by conducting short interviews with employers, staff, faculty and students.
There was a wide range of employers and available positions — from full-time, entry-level roles to part-time jobs to internships to volunteer opportunities. For example, DeCicco & Sons was seeking store clerks and accounting staff; Homes for the Homeless was seeking case managers and daycare teachers; IBM was seeking financial analysts and accounting analysts; Keller Williams Realty was seeking sales agents and social media consultants; Mercy College was seeking a PACT counselor and an admissions recruiter; the U.S. Navy was seeking recruits; the New York City Department of Corrections was seeking non-uniform positions and corrections officers; ScribeAmerica was seeking medical scribes; the New York Botanical Garden was seeking interns; and WestMed Practice Partners was seeking nurses and a help desk technician. Mercy’s School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBSS) Internship Committee was also present to spread the word about how SBSS students can do internships for both academic credit and grant-funded stipends.
Attendees responded enthusiastically to the event with 77 percent of employers strongly agreeing that they were happy they attended the Career Fair.
Dr. Jason Zalinger, Assistant Professor and head of Mercy’s Communication Studies program, enjoyed observing students at the event: “There’s a buzz. You can feel it. I’m so happy to see so many students here — walking around, introducing themselves, talking to prospective employers for jobs and internships. I like to come here and watch this. They’re in class, and they work so hard. It’s nice to see them get to this point where they’re being ‘professional them.’”
Watch this video of Julia Wexler, Mercy's Director of Employer Relations, discussing the Career Fair with Westchester Talk Radio.
Some of the recruiters had connections to Mercy:
Watch Anna Buono '18 of The Arc Westchester
View Vynette Johnson of Westmed
Watch Greg Muy '19 represent Iron Health
See Alexa Kelnhofer '18, Camele Clarke '06, '09 and Derek Napolitano '19, who work for IBM.
View Ashley Ricciardi '17 of DeCicco and Sons