Tenth Annual AUB Job Fair Largest Since Its Inception

One of the busy booths at the job fair

The booths of almost 120 local, regional, and international firms attracted scores of student jobseekers, dressed professionally and armed with their CVs, to AUB's Tenth Annual Job Fair, held on May 4-5. Although a wide variety of agricultural, pharmaceutical, chemical, engineering, educational, architectural, financial, business, and media firms and corporations were invited to participate, job market needs were reflected by the fact that more than sixty-three companies were looking for potential business and finance employees. On the other hand, other firms only sought graduating engineering students and a number of companies, like Nescafe and Proctor and Gamble, were looking for students from all majors.

Work opportunities available for students in the humanities and social science disciplines were mainly in the field of education. Seven educational institutions sent their representatives this year and received applications from students seeking to become secondary school teachers. The schools included the Ahliah, the Mawakeb, Al Noor International, Al Sanawbar, the International of Choueifat, and the Shaikha Hessa Girls' School.

To help students locate the stands of potential recruiters, the AUB Office of Career and Placement Services (CPS) had published a Job Fair Guide that profiled the participating companies and indicated the likely majors of study recruiters were seeking. Booths for the fair were arranged along AUB's upper campus, extending from Bliss Hall to Ada Dodge Hall, covering the periphery of the Green Oval and the empty spaces surrounding West Hall. The rents of the booths ranged from $500 to $2000. Companies vied for the most attractive spots, and some, like Aishti, rented more than one booth space and erected giant signs to attract student attention.

While many companies complained that the rental fees were rather high, CPS Director Maryam Ghandour stressed they should remember the "social debt" they owe to the community and said that the bulk of the revenues collected would go to support the University's student financial aid program. While the final figure of the total rental revenues is yet to be computed, Ghandour assured that the net revenues would be more than $100,000, an amount exceeding the annual revenues made since the inception of the fair ten years ago.