One-stop shopping. Just-in-time.
Call it what you will, a career fair held in Orlando with University of Central Florida (UCF) and University of Florida (UF) provided a great opportunity for 44 Florida International University (FIU) graduate students in the College of Business Administration to meet potential employers.
“Starting in 2005, we hosted the MBA/MS ‘Just in Time Hiring’ event in conjunction with the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) within the business school,” said Barry Shiflett, director, Career Management Services (CMS). “This year, Elsie Florido (MSHRM ’09), CMS associate director, and I proposed moving it to Orlando and co-hosting it with UCF and UF—both to accommodate more employers and to give our students the chance to see employers who do not recruit at FIU.”
Students were able to load a résumé into the event résumé book, sent to employers one week prior to the event, which was open to all FIU, UCF, and UF MBA/MS students and alumni plus the members of the Orlando, Tampa and South Florida NSHMBA chapters. The FIU students traveled by bus, courtesy of CMS, from Miami to Orlando. Twenty-four companies participated including AirTran Airlines, American Airlines, CIA, DeVita, Kraft Foods Source 88, Star Casualty, State Farm, Regions Bank, Royal Caribbean and the U.S. Department of State.
Student evaluations confirm the positive impact of the collaborative effort.
“There was lots of value to the experience,” said Frank McGuinness (BBA ’08), a student completing the International MBA program at FIU. “From the start it sounded like a good way to bring together talent from Florida plus employers to meet many students. Even the bus trip was nice because I networked with students in our other graduate programs and have stayed in touch with them.”
According to Shiflett, “Employer evaluations were good and they recommended we keep the event at UCF next year. We already have set a date for February 18, 2011.”
[set_id=72157623729378131]
