Fall 2011 Part-time Job Fair Attracts Mississippi College Students

Mississippi College students are seeking part-time jobs at companies like Newk’s Express Café, United Parcel Service and Trustmark bank.

Recruiters from nine companies accepted applications and fielded questions Wednesday from nearly 200 MC students at the Christian university’s Fall Part-time Job Fair.

“This is a good way to meet employers and save time,” said senior Devon James, 23, of Baton Rouge. “This makes it a lot more convenient.”

With a diverse set of employers sitting at tables at the cafeteria inside the B.C. Rogers Student Center, James, a business administration, expressed interest in a position at Trustmark.

At a time when America’s economic woes are lingering with an unemployment rate exceeding 9 percent, Mississippi College students say part-time jobs could open doors to full-time employment. It’s also a good way to pay for costly textbooks and other school expenses.

“I need extra cash so everything is not coming from loans,” said MC graduate student Scott Nimmons, 24, of Houston, Texas.

Seeking a master’s degree in biology with plans to go to medical school, Nimmons was interested a job with the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.

“It’s difficult to get part-time work,” said the former Rice University football player.

But the 4^th annual event sponsored by the MC Office of Career Services is making that process much easier.

Other firms like Belk Distribution Center, Broadband Voice, LLC, Fastenal, Kaplan Test Prep, and Anthropologie in the Renaissance at Colony Park mall in Ridgeland were also represented at the three-hour program.

“Everybody is here,” said senior communication major Jerrell Robinson as the 22-year-old from Indianola browsed at tables loaded with information, while hundreds of classmates dined in the cafeteria.

Newk’s is hiring students to work as servers, cashiers, and cooks. “We’ve gotten a lot of very good employees from Mississippi College,” said Lori Pickens, a manager at the restaurant off U.S. 80.

The MC Office of Career Services is sponsoring a much bigger event on February 7, 2012, its annual Career Day on the Clinton campus. Assistant career services director Hayley Taff says her office will also host a second part-time jobs fair in the spring.

For more information, contact the Office of Career Services at 601.925.7717 or go to www.mc.edu/career.