LETTER: SMG-exclusive career fairs should be open to all majors

The employer’s name is Acquis Consulting. Its recruiters say they are looking for students graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. Another firm, Cambridge Associates LLC, is looking for potential employees from an even more diverse pool of students: They say they are looking for students graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in fine arts/graphic design or economics, or a bachelor of science in business administration, communication, education, engineering, hospitality administration, life or physical sciences or social sciences. The list of companies (and majors) goes on, and includes General Electric, Hillstone Restaurant Group, Ameriprise, Bloomberg, Ernst and Young and Eze Castle Software. However, not all of Boston University’s undergraduate student body will have access to meet some of these highly attractive potential employers, because they are not enrolled in the School of Management.

As a graduating senior, I have decided to start my job search now. I believe the best way of finding a dream job is to research as many companies as I can. One of the best ways to learn about potential employers and opportunities is to attend career fairs. After all, most employers recruit their employees at job fairs or from past internships. Knowing this, a friend of mine who is currently enrolled in SMG told me that the upcoming BU School of Management Fall ’07 Career Expo would feature some of the world’s biggest companies, and they were not only looking for students with a degree in business, but from a wide selection of majors.

However, after contacting the SMG Feld Career Center, I was told that the event would be closed to non-SMG students. When I asked for a calendar of events, I was told that no printed copies were available for College of Arts and Sciences students. To me, this SMG policy makes no sense. Why would the Feld Center knowingly limit the general BU undergraduate community from such a valuable event, particularly when 25 of the 40 firms set to participate in the career fair are currently looking for both business and non-business majors? Don’t the aforementioned firms also have a need for communicators, statisticians, economists, psychologists and engineers?

Last week I attended an information session held by Goldman Sachs at SMG after seeing a post on the CAS Career Link. Nonetheless, Goldman Sachs recruiters asked that resumes were submitted through their webpage and through SMG’s equivalent to CAS’s Career Link. I suspect the Goldman Sachs recruiters, who are recruiting engineers and economists — concentrations not offered through SMG — were unaware CAS uses a different source to post resumes and therefore were unaware students actually studying those subjects would not be able to submit resumes. I am not completely sure of the type of coordination that exists between the Feld Center and other Career Services offices, but the Feld Center’s policies are limiting non-SMG students in their job searches and giving SMG students an unfair advantage.

I call for both a better coordination between all career centers at BU and better access for CAS, College of Engineering, School of Education, School of Hospitality Administration and College of Communication students to future career fairs.

Samir Corrales

CAS ’08