Eastern had some guests over and they brought gifts for students: Employment opportunities.

Employers at Wednesday’s Career Network Day, several of which wore the blue alumni ribbon on their name tags, were not handing out jobs like candy, but they did have good things to say about Eastern’s students.

“We’re looking for local students. We have offices in Champaign and Springfield and we’re looking for local professionals to fill positions,” said Jessica Millis, an agency recruiter for Prudential Financial.

Career Services put on the event to bring in employers from almost every field except education and broadcast media, which have separate job fairs.

They have been preparing students all semester with programs such as the resume critique blitz, workshops on how to “work” a career fair and programs on how to network.

“Never miss a chance to meet a recruiter face to face,” Director of Career Services Linda Moore said.

Moore stressed the importance of the event.

“You’ll spend 10 times the effort with not very good results, compared to seeing one face to face, Moore said.”Work hard, spend a lot of time and money, or do it the easier way. Face to face is definitely the easy way.”

While Moore talked about how experience talking to recruiters is valuable, Hilary Cloe, a senior mathematics major, found out for herself.

“After I went to the Career Network Day and talk to some employers, I feel more confident about going to another career fair, or turning in a resume,” Cloe said.

Cloe prepared by wearing a silk blouse and black slacks, because she said they were more professional, and wearing professional clothes is important.

As a senior, Cloe is looking for an internship rather than a job and was worried that her math major would exclude her from many of the positions she would like to hold.

She reviewed the floor plan of the event, locating the business with jobs she was interested in.

After talking to a handful of companies she found two that were open to her major; one had an internship she was interested in.

According to Career Services and Moore “internships are critical.”

She said nationally, of the employers who hired this fall, 90 percent of the people they hired were interns.

Normally, 35 to 50 percent of new hires were interns, Moore said.

That being said, not everyone may have their dream job, but the jobs students are getting are professional positions rather than jobs bussing tables or pumping gas.

“They just need to get a position to get inside a company. When the rebound impacts employment, because it has not, they’re actually in the company and they can get promoted.” Moore said.

Moore noted the economy is not ideal for jobs, but she said that last year they had a 77 percent placement rate for non-education majors.

“Some business are growing even in this economy,” Moore said.

Millis, who is seeking Eastern graduates, said that the financial services sector is expected to grow 41 percent in the next 10 years.

“While other companies are laying off we are going to grow, we’re going to be adding managers,” Millis said.

She even talked about the possibility of a huge expansion by Prudential because of demand for services.

Some common advice that was echoed through the career fair was to dress appropriately, research your prospective company, have good communication skills and attend job fairs.

James Roedl can be reached at 581-7942 or at jmroedl@eiu.edu

Economics professor Tim Mason displays a green ball he received at the Career Fair Wednesday afternoon in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.(Amir Prellberg / The Daily Eastern News)

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