The Career Fair held at American River College on Thursday, Oct. 2 left students, faculty members, and company representatives feeling optimistic about job opportunities to come.

“The vibe is very energetic,” said Vicki Sherman, a clerk at the Career and Job Opportunity Center.  “ARC students came well prepared this year.”

“This year we did something different,” said Eva M. Bell, student personnel assistant at the Career Center.  “What we did this year is we sent student volunteers out to let students know that the Career Fair is coming.”

The Career Fair had a wide array of companies come to ARC, including Sam’s Club, AmeriGas, Platt Electricity, and the Conservation Corps, each hoping to find students from the school to hire.

John Prieto, a respiratory major and currently an in-home care provider, said that he found new opportunities at the Career Fair.

“I found four other opportunities with better benefits and better strategies with dealing with clients,” he said. “These jobs offered an overall better pay.  I found this fair to be very beneficial.”

Freshman Greg Houghby said that the Career Fair was an easy opportunity to gain employment.

“There are plenty of job opportunities here.  If you don’t get a job here the only excuse you have is that you didn’t apply yourself,” he said.  “There’s ample opportunity here.  You can smell it in the air as soon as you walk in there.”

The variety of career choices only added to the energy.  Employers came to the Career Fair excited, ready to meet and greet first-hand with students.

“I feel like we had a really good response from students,” said Officer Dustin Poore of the Los Rios Police Department.  “Because we have a lot of open positions, we had a lot of interest.”

Amanda Stewart of Boreal Mountain Resort in Truckee said that the fair generated a lot of interest for students.

“The fair was good and successful, there was a lot of interest and we appreciated the visit,” she said.  Stewart spoke to more than 30 students interested in working at Boreal Mountain Resort.

In mentioning how she felt about this year’s Career Fair Stewart said, “We got to speak to quite a few people who have what we were looking for.”