Every winter semester, BYU–Hawaii hosts more than 75 domestic and international employees at its annual career fair, according to Career Services Manager Kenneth Kalama. This year, Kalama and his staff transformed the fair into an online expo, called the BYU–Hawaii Ho‘okele Virtual Career Expo, for students to browse various opportunities available to them from around the world.
This year Career Services held an online, module-based career fair, where instead of events, there were modules online that included information about the employer, its representative, relevant social media links and a YouTube video introduction, Kalama explained.
“Creating a virtual directory of employers where students can log in at any time, learn about the company and reach out to that representative made sense for us,” he said.
The event was held on March 29 to 31 and had more than 20 companies and 386 students registered, according to J Smith, Career Services employee and senior from Virginia majoring in intercultural peacebuilding and business management.
Camilla Paul, a senior studying human resources from Malaysia and a Career Services employee, said she did not attend the career fair until she joined Career Services, but then learned the real purpose for attending when she began learning about employers personally. She said at this year’s Career Fair, she learned “about Punjas, which I thought was an Indian manufacturer.”
Paul soon discovered Punjas not only focuses on health foods, but also on children’s products and beauty products, customizable to other regions. “I learned there are better opportunities still available with any employer,” she said. “Just knowing the employer will help, but you also need to understand what they do specifically, so you can find those opportunities.”
“The more important thing is you practice interacting with employers as if you were going for your dream job,” Kalama explained. “The more experience you have, you will have that opportunity when the time is right.”
Kalama said in previous years, more than 100 employers and 1,600 students would attend the career fair every March. However, the number of employers decreased to 85 in 2020 because of the absence of Asian employers due to COVID-19, he said.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 Kalama and his staff postponed the October career fair to November. He said they reorganized it into a month-long event titled “Month of Exploration and Education.” The events ran only on Thursdays, but Kalama said there were logistical problems connecting multiple Zoom meetings in different time zones.
Kalama explained these online modules were a low-impact way of interacting with other organizations or an effective way of maintaining the brand of BYUH, since time commitments for employers are small. He said these interactions are usually around 10 to 15 minutes.
Career Services employee, Marissa Cahyaningtyas, a senior studying psychology from Indonesia, said the career fair helped her realized there are employers she wasn’t aware of. “I connect with them by email, or I can receive great advice regarding skills many employers are looking for.”
Cahyaningtyas said the fair taught her to be brave in talking with professionals but also helped her be more professional in her conduct.
Paul explained students are employed at BYUH to build skills like their ability to communicate. Paul added the career fair is a first step to not only engage with employers but learn how their organizations work.
Paul said communication is important in the workforce because it gives opportunities to share ideas and to improve team relationships. Paul explained at a previous job, issues arose normally because of a lack of communication. “What I learned we needed is to meet every week to resolve any conflicts,” she said. “You understand your team a lot better, and you relieve a lot of pressure on others.”
Cahyaningtyas said,“Carefully think about what makes you happy. Doing something that we like is important, but we also must be rational with our choices too."