A new door for opportunities opened at the Univesity. On Tuesday, Feb. 3, the University held its first ever Communication, Marketing and Media Career Fair from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Students in the College of Liberal Arts and marketing majors in the School of Business gathered in the Villanova Room for the fair. With 31 renowned employers attending, it is no wonder that the fair attracted so many students.

“This is the first time ever that we’re holding this event,” Sheila Doherty, Assistant Director for Student Services at the Career Center, said.

Doherty spoke with enthusiasm and optimism about the event. She believed the fair would be a great opportunity for students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to meet employers in their field.

Following the end of the school year in 2014, the Career Center staff held a meeting discussing new trends that many Career Center services are undertaking.

“The idea for the Communication, Marketing & Media Fair arose at a Career Center staff meeting in which we discussed the trend of more industry-specific career fairs,” Doherty said.

The Career Center team, led by Beth Cahill and Sheila Doherty, decided to take action.

“We spoke with long-time employer partners, like Johnson & Johnson, who hire for a multitude of businesses, if they would prefer a more industry-focused model of career fairs,” Doherty said.

“Employers and students agreed they’d like to meet one another in a more intimate, industry-specific environment.”

The next step was reaching out to differ- ent departments and strategizing ways to promote the fair.

“This was much different this time,” Doherty said. “We spoke immediately with the Communication department and the marketing department in VSB and also the English department in Liberal Arts and Sciences and let them know our plans and immediately got their support.”

It did not end there. Doherty and other staff members reached out to 425 alumni in the industry.

“We did a really strong outreach to alumni in the field, in all three of those fields,” Doherty said. “We asked alumni to spread the word to their human resource teams and to encourage them to create a buzz around this exciting new fair.”

As a member of the student advisory committee in the Philly Ad Club, Doherty reached out to the connections she has there. She said that they were extremely sup- portive and helped the career cen- ter connect with the presidents of the major media outlets.

“Lastly, we leveraged our part- nerships with the Philly Ad Club and Campus Philly to land local media outlets,” Doherty said. “Now, we are focused on preparing our students for the career fairs.”

The fair primarily attracted Liberal Arts students and some marketing students.

Villanovans eagerly spoke with possible employers present at the event, including 3M, Comcast- NBC Universal, Gregory FCA Communications, Northwestern Mutual, Teach for America, ReminderMedia and more.

Doherty was confident that the fair will not only benefit students, but it will also be a great oppor- tunity for prominent employ- ers to witness the high caliber of Villanovans.

According to Doherty, the Career Center educated employers on the credentials and skill sets of Villanova students to attract them to recruit at the fair.

As far as what the students should do to attract employers, Doherty shared her advice.

“The advice I have is to research the companies who are coming, see what interests you about them and be ready for specific questions for the companies,” said Doherty.

Doherty emphasized the importance of knowing the com- pany because recruiters like to see students that have actively been researching about what the com- pany does.

Doherty also focused on “know- ing yourself.”

She believes that it is good to be professional but students should always be themselves.

“Be prepared to talk about your- self. Have a 30 second introduc- tion prepared: who you are as a student, who you are as a member of the campus, what you are inter- ested in and what potentially you will have to offer to the company,” Doherty advised.

With the success of this fair, Doherty said there will be more events similar to this in the future.

“We are thrilled to be running Villanova’s first ever Communication, Marketing & Media Career Fair,” Doherty said. “We hope to see first-time career fair goers connecting with key employers in the industry. We’re proud of our first line-up of employers and know our students will wow them with their profes- sionalism, skills and enthusiasm.”