Some 300 job-seekers and career-shoppers jammed the lobby of New Haven’s Shubert Theatre Thursday afternoon for the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce’s annual Internship & Career Fair.
About three dozen exhibitors, from manufacturers to non-profits to the U.S. Army and FBI, vied for the attention of attendees young and old seeking potential internships, the next step up the career ladder or at the very least some productive networking face time.
Infra-Metals, a structural steel service provider, was on the hunt for newly minted college grads to join the Wallingford company as sales trainees.
Sales Manager Colleen Wiesbrock said the afternoon was “a positive experience, with a lot of people coming in. We’re happy we’re here.” Infra-Metals sales rep Scott Kennedy said visitors to his company’s booth had been a mix of college students and “just the general public” including mid-career workers seeking non-sales jobs in Infra-Metals’ Pent Highway plant.
Alexion Pharmaceuticals hosted a table at the career fair less for recruiting than to remind visitors that even though the New Haven-born biopharma relocated its headquarters to Boston two and a half years ago, it still maintains a strong presence in the city of its birth, with some 450 employees working in its former headquarters building at 100 College St.
“We are looking to let people know that Alexion is right here in New Haven,” said Alexion recruiting partner Dan Izzo. “Our research center of excellence is right here, and all of our product development is being done right here in New Haven.”
He called the afternoon “a wonderful chance to get out into the public and see the young talent” from New Haven-area colleges as well as schools a bit farther afield, like Trinity College and UConn.
Among that young talent was Kayleigh Roy of Wallingford, a senior at Southern Connecticut State University. Roy was at the Shubert on the hunt for a possible internship in events-management and hospitality.
Another SCSU senior was Haroon Chaudhry, a business major eyeing a full-time entry-level position in the business world following graduation this May. Chaudhry is seeking a position in sales and/or project management. At the Shubert he had a number of productive conversations with health-care companies and recruiters.
SCSU senior Haroon Chaudhry: Sales is about ‘going out there and building relationships.’
What attracts Chaudhry to the high-pressure arena of sales?
“The thing I love about it is you’re consistently going out there and building relationships,” he said, “finding ways we can help each other and then strategizing ways to advance our mutual interests.”
Give that young man a job.
