The ferris wheel of life made several students a little sick at the fair this week. Not the state fair, but the Fall Career & Internship Fair held in UMC Oct. 1 and 2. On both days of the fair over 100 employers from various companies sought out the bright faces of the soon to be CU grads. Older students adjusted their ties and balanced in their heels as they crowded the two rooms of employers to hand out resumes and sweet talk themselves into their first postgraduate position.
While some students may have welcomed the fair as a chance to brag about their success in the past four years, others (like myself) were having nightmares about trying to sell their professional life in 20 minutes or less.
Although there are so many things we need to do to prepare, not only for the career fair, but for our post-graduation lives, it’s important to remember to be yourself and be confident. It isn’t the end of the world if you don’t find your life career at the fair; it’s safe to say most don’t. Just getting your name out there and having a starting point is enough to stress about at this point.
In case there isn’t a big enough battle in the job market, there’s one more thing that keeps students in our class fighting over positions: the lack of variety in attending employers.
“I definitely think that [the career fair] is geared to the engineers,” said 20-year-old junior math major Peter Cirkovic. “It would be a lot more effective, and a lot nicer if there was a little more variety.”
While the companies that recruit at the fair all seem to be well-known and successful, they did seem just a little too selective. Engineering and finance seem to be the hot commodities of our time: I just wish someone would’ve told me that four years ago.
Don’t worry, there’s no way I could switch up my whole plan now, and I wouldn’t if I could. It is a little frustrating to be shut out after I’ve worked so hard on my soft-sciences degree, and I’m sure a lot of students feel that way. So who’s to blame for the lack of variety at the career fair? The employers? The economy? The university? I’m sure any one of these suspects could be the culprit, but while frustrating, it is yet another opportunity.
Part of finding a job is making yourself stand out above the rest, and why wouldn’t anyone want to go the extra mile to make himself look even more awesome? So once again, fellow seniors and fellow buffs, things won’t come easy (unless, I guess, you’re an engineer). Try to keep up your awesomeness, and when the time comes, your resume will speak for itself.
Contact Staff Writer Corie Thompson at Corie.thompson@colorado.edu
