Ohio Northern University continues to be known for its return on investment for students, helping launch graduates in great careers and boosting their earnings over a lifetime. Exemplifying this is the University’s consistently high placement rate for recent graduating classes, including the Class of 2023, which saw a 96% job and graduate school placement rate.
Certain ONU colleges logged even better numbers. For instance, the College of Engineering’s Class of ’23 had a 98% response rate and a 99% placement rate.
The reasons for such high placement rates are simple: along with benefiting from superior academics, students enjoy a robust career guidance network that focuses on success. Polar Careers offers essentials such as resume-building assistance, salary negotiating tips, LinkedIn navigating, and self-branding pointers, along with career assessment tools like the Strong Interest Inventory and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to help with this important decision-making process.
On Feb. 8, ONU offered what is considered a primary job search component: Winter Career and Graduate School Fair. This year’s event served 247 undergraduate and graduate student participants from ONU’s five colleges; and included 121 employers and 240 recruiters. Some of the larger employers who took part in the fair included the Ohio auditor’s office, American Structurepoint, BAE Systems, BC Construction Group, Buckle, Crown Equipment Corporation, Cenovus, Copeland, Graphic Packaging International, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Honda, Kroger, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Medpace, Ohio Department of Transportation, OhioHealth, and Stantec.
Students learned about available full-time jobs, management training opportunities, leadership development programs, internships, and co-operative education experiences. For instance, Arrive Logistics has an opening for a business development representative, DLZ Corporation for a civil engineer, GROB for an electrical engineer, Ohio State Highway Patrol for troopers and MJ Recruiters is seeking to fill internships and project manager positions.
Career fairs not only offer valuable networking opportunities and chances to sharpen professional communication skills, but provide students with opportunities to potentially interview with employers during the event; at the recent fair, seven companies interviewed 20 students.
“Career fairs mesh with the overall career services we offer through workshops that prepare students” to meet employers, said Andrea Domachowski, director of Career Services. “For example, we help them build the career tools (resume) and the skills (elevator pitch and interviewing) to help them succeed during the event.”
ONU even helps students stand out with a new Career Closet, which provides free professional clothing for job interviews and wear for practice interviews. Just prior to the Winter Career Fair, Career Closet hosted a Dress for Success Day that offered students the opportunity to try on outfits.
A fall career and graduate school fair is also held annually.