by Marian Douglas | Echo
With fewer than three months left in the school year, Taylor University seniors are making plans for the future. The Calling and Career Office recommends that seniors begin searching for a job during the fall, but even soon-to-be graduates can procrastinate.
For students who are still looking for jobs, forty Indiana-based companies will be setting up booths at Indiana Wesleyan University's upcoming job fair. This fair specifically aims to show graduating students all that Indiana can offer.
"We have a very healthy economy compared to surrounding states," Indiana Wesleyan's Director of Life Calling and Career Carol Brown said. "Students aren't always aware of that."
Indiana includes four of the United States' 25 cities with the lowest cost of living, according to a Business Insider article from 2016. Also, Indiana's unemployment rate is at 4.0 percent. This is lower than the national unemployment rate of 4.8 percent.
Job fairs like Indiana Wesleyan's are an excellent opportunity for seniors, as one out of three Taylor graduates will likely find his or her first position in Indiana. According to Director of Taylor's
Calling and Career Office Jeff Aupperle, 35 percent of Taylor graduates stay in the state for at least nine months after graduation.
Indiana Wesleyan's job fair is a part of a larger two-day event called Experience Indiana which will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, March 15-16. The chief goal of Experience Indiana is to bring together vendors and employers from Indiana with students in an environment providing networking and business training practices.
This event is free to anyone who wishes to attend, thanks to funding from the Lilly Endowment, Inc.
"Both days are open to the public," Brown said. "But the funding is very much geared toward college students."
Lilly Endowment, Inc. provides grants to several educational groups across the state. "The Lilly Endowment . . . encourages universities to make certain their students are aware of the opportunities
that are available to students in Indiana," Aupperle said. Taylor uses its grant to support the Calling and Career Office's Promising Ventures program.
This year's Experience Indiana event will be shorter than last year's. Indiana Wesleyan compressed the four-day long event it put on last year into two days. According to Brown, the four-day-long event was hard to manage and filled with redundancies.
The job fair is the focus of the first day. Half of the 40 businesses involved in the job fair are returning for a second time. Brown said many of the businesses reached out to Indiana Wesleyan even
before the official registration page was created.
The second day focuses on the talents and activities available in Indiana. It will feature live music, food, vendors, free giveaways and prizes.
Experience Indiana will be held in the Barnes Student Center at Indiana Wesleyan. More information about this event can be found here. For students who hope to attend the job fair, Brown advised that they dress professionally.
