By Robert Prater

As a college student, employment and academics can be closely linked. Whether it is going to class to get that dream job, getting a job to be more involved on campus, or working to pay the bills and move forward into adulthood. However, getting face time or being noticed by potential employers can be challenging.

On Thursday, Aug. 28, the university’s Career Studio partnered with nearly 20 off-campus retailers to help bring the job search to the students in the second ever Part-Time Job Expo.
According to the Career Studio’s career mentor Shane Carter, many of the off-campus job tables reached out to the campus to snag their fair share of the vibrant college student demographic.
“Absolutely amazing turnout, we never would have expected this to be so big,” Carter said.

Vendors ranging from Custom Ink, Cabela’s, the campus writing center, and the Wolf Shop held plenty of opportunities for all kinds of part-time positions, especially with many of the vendors looking to hire right on the spot. Nearly 600 students lined up along the stairwell to the fourth floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union. Some students had to come back after class as the line had estimated wait times of 10 minutes just to get into the expo.

According to student Kerrie Brook, the expo created a convenient means for students to search jobs.
“You don’t always know who is hiring, and having everything centralized is really helpful,” said Brooke.

Student Sam Adams was happy to have the expo as a resource and found that having employers all together in one location very convenient.
“It’s nice not to have to job hunt,” Adams said. “It’s all right here.”

However, it wasn’t just the ease of access that caught the attention of some students. Freshman Paulina Timokhin went to the expo to scope out on-campus positions and see what opportunities she could take advantage of in the coming semester. What Timokhin found was not only was it nice to have all the part-time jobs there but also that the informational side of the expo helped just a much.

“Everything is stated really clearly and the handouts are really helpful,” Timokhin said. “You can walk by, tell if you’re interested or not, and find what your interested in before wasting you’re time where you’re not.”

While student came looking for what companies were hiring, others came in with specific positions and companies in mind.

For instance, student Sarha Sterling found interest in the Nanny Services of Nevada and was even able to set up an interview for a future employment.
Yet, Sterling wasn’t totally satisfied with the expo.

Sterling found that the event was kind of overwhelming at times as she felt pressured to look at jobs she wasn’t really interested in.
“There was a lot of people pulling you to go check out this job and check out that job,” said Sterling.

Though to some students this was just the opportunity they had been hoping for.
“I was having a really hard time looking for jobs online, and I had been looking for about two months,” said university student Gunnar Wambough. ”So having everything here where I don’t have to apply anonymously is really great.”

Carter summarized the expo as a unexpected success and says that students can expect to see this expo every semester and that it will hopefully include even more of the student body.

Robert Prater can be reached at rprater@sagebrush.unr.edu.