This past week, the University held its annual Fall Job and Internship Fair, featuring 139 companies and hundreds of students seeking to nail down some sort of employment opportunity. I too was one of these students, and while I was partaking in the fair, one characteristic of the event troubled me in particular: the presence of consulting firms seemed to be overwhelming, to say the least. While the career fair serves as an excellent opportunity for both students and employers alike to reach out to one another, the event would be greatly enhanced by a more diverse set of participating employers, as it would appeal to a wider portion of the student body.
It is important, nonetheless, to make a distinction about this criticism. In an intriguing column written by my fellow columnist Will Evans, he criticizes the prevalence of consulting companies on college campuses, saying “they tempt students with glimpses into the high life” of corporate America, which causes our nation’s best and brightest to be sucked into that industry. While I understand his frustration with the recruiting practices of various consulting firms, I am not quite as critical of that as I am of their clear presence on campuses. There is a certain pervasiveness of consulting agencies on college campuses, and it seems clear to me this pervasiveness has manifested itself in our career fairs. Thus, the issue at hand does not necessarily concern consulting as an industry, but rather the fact that consulting has become so prevalent at the career fair.
The primary issue with this is that students who do not have an interest in consulting will be more likely to feel apathetic toward the event altogether. Yet, some might feel job fairs are naturally more conducive to consulting firms, and thus deserve the large representation they receive at the event. I am not implying consulting agencies should be removed from the fair, as they still offer great benefits to students, especially those interested in the industry. But for someone who never was particularly taken with the idea of being a consultant, the fair is problematic. When I saw that almost 40 of the participating companies were involved in consulting, I lost a great deal of interest in the event and almost decided to not attend altogether.
Perhaps my situation is different from others at the University. As a History and Foreign Affairs major, I am unqualified for many of the tech-heavy, non-consulting jobs that were also present at the fair. While the University does have somewhat of a responsibility to push students into the STEM and business fields, it also has a responsibility to understand the personal ambitions of its students. There are a great deal of employment opportunities that could interest students such as me that simply were not present, specifically within public policy and government sectors. Nevertheless, with the exception of the FBI and State Department, there was a clear under-representation of employers in these two fields, as only a meager 13 of the 139 participants labeled their organization as being in the government or public policy industries. Although I still attended the career fair because I am aware of the benefits it could bring to job-seeking students, I essentially got suited up just to talk to only two prospective employers that interested me. For students in this position, the benefits of the career fair are simply not as clear.
There is no doubt consulting is a popular industry to work in for many students at the University. It is the top industry for recent graduates to work in, according to University Career Services. Likewise, consulting is the third largest growing industry for recent graduates behind only the finance and information services industries, according to Forbes Therefore, some students and administrators might see the large representation of consulting firms at the career fair as pragmatic, since it is so popular amongst the student body.
Nevertheless, it is crucial not to forget that the consulting industry, albeit a popular career choice for many students, is not the right industry for everyone. Having this industry so prominently represented at the career fair serves to alienate students who are not interested in consulting from the many benefits career fairs provide. In order to ensure that each student’s interests are properly represented, it is crucial that future career fairs attract employers that reflect those same diverse interests. What is the value of the career fair anyway if it alienates a large portion of the audience it is seeking to benefit?
Jesse Berman is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at j.berman@cavalierdaily.com.
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