Career Fair Reflection

Everything became very real as I entered the health care career fair on October 14th. I was expecting to see the same employers and get the same answer, “We don’t hire COTAs. Although my second time attending, I had a different experience. There were multiple booths that were looking to hire occupational and physical therapy assistants. Being close to graduation, made the career fair much more beneficial. The employers were more likely to engage in conversation about your future plans than before. One aspect about the career fair I don’t like is how some of the booths when you approached them, automatically would say they weren’t hiring when we stated that we were in the OTA program. I feel as though this event is to find future careers even

for people exploring their options. Some of the booths were to quick to steer people away, even though they could be hiring by the time we graduate. The employers that I talked to and found the most interesting were the Holton Community Hospital, St, Francis, Stormont-Vail, Summit Care, and Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
I was really glad to be able to talk with the employers from the Holton Hospital, since that is one of my level II fieldwork placements. They offer skilled nursing, home health, and a wide range of rehabilitation services. St. Francis hospital talked a lot about how they are a faith based hospital. I found this interesting, because I was not aware of that, although Steve that was working at their booth was very energetic about St. Francis. He explained how the religious aspect makes your job enriching. Summit Care, Inc. was most likely my favorite booth of the day. I had not heard of Summit Care until the career fair, so I am glad that I had the opportunity to speak with them. They provide assisted living with their focus on creative therapy. Some of the different examples of their creative therapy programs are installing a butterfly garden to release butterflies, aquatic therapy, and attending fieldtrips to the Titanic Museum, NASCAR races, restaurants, craft stores, and the Kauffman Center. I would be very interested in working in this health care setting.
Lastly we visited the employers from the Lawrence Memorial Hospital. When I graduate, I plan on staying in Topeka. Most of the other booths were from other parts of the state such as Kansas City, Hutchison, and Wichita. I would not be opposed to driving to Lawrence to work or even Holton. At this booth they showed us how to navigate their website to set up a profile on their page. This enables you to enter you resume and other qualifications even before graduation. You can also set up to be alerted when jobs open up in your desired field. Overall, the career fair this time around was much more beneficial and eye opening.