Business students develop real-world skills through Mock Job Fair
Business students develop real-world skills through Mock Job Fair
Business students develop real-world skills through Mock Job Fair
3/5/2020
On a recent day off from class, when the 91快播 campus was mostly quiet, the parking lot at the School of Business & Public Administration had a different energy. Inside, professionally dressed students were moving like clockwork between the two main lecture halls. Some looked nervous, clutching onto a crisp folder containing a cover letter and resume, while others with friendly smiles were escorting students from the waiting room to their interviews.
It was the semiannual Mock Job Fair, a collaboration of four human resources courses with significant logistical coordination and support from the .
The simulated job fair, in its fifth year, is completely organized, run, and attended by students 鈥� each one鈥檚 role determined by the class he or she is currently taking.
鈥淲e鈥檙e learning to be better interviewers and how to handle different types of personalities,鈥� said student Carly Champaco-Mu帽oz, who was interviewing applicants for her team鈥檚 interior design business, Bonita Concepts. 鈥淲e鈥檙e preparing for once we get into the real world and into the HR field so we already have that feel of what it takes to be on this side of the table."
Her classmate and colleague in Bonita Concepts, Christian San Nicolas, said the experience was also important for developing the communication skills that are essential in the human resources profession.
鈥淗ow well are the interviewees making eye contact, what鈥檚 their tone of voice鈥� and in return, we have to be professional and give them our undivided attention,鈥� he said.
Students from another course, 鈥淢anaging the Employee and Work Environment鈥� (BA-345), were tasked with critiquing the company websites, job advertisements, and interview procedure, and students from the 鈥淐ompensation, Benefits, and Performance Evaluations鈥� (BA-443) class designed the wage and salary structures for each job opening as well as the benefits packages.
Throughout the course of their degree, students studying human resources participate in the Mock Job Fair multiple times in different roles.
鈥淔or this class, we鈥檙e on this side of the table, but for other classes we鈥檝e had to be the ones getting interviewed,鈥� San Nicolas said. 鈥淪o we鈥檙e experiencing all sides.鈥�
According to Professor Richard S. Colfax, the event involves considerable collaboration by many groups, all being led by the upper-division 鈥淪taffing and Employee Development鈥� class with the SHRM Student Chapter as the backbone for logistics and manpower for operations.
鈥淭his Mock Job Fair serves every semester as a capstone activity for the human resource management disciplines here at SBPA,鈥� Colfax said. 鈥淭his project was a huge success due to the collaboration of many, many students and the guidance of Dr. Joann Diego and her BA-444 project team that always make this a valuable and enjoyable learning project.鈥�
The team鈥檚 fictitious company websites can be viewed here: