Career Fairs

Though I have attend the Career Fair at my University a total of six times now, every semester since my arrival, I am ever surprised at how awkward the entire event always tends to be.

You have fifty or so business men and women standing around in front of tables covered in shit displaying their lovely company logos. Wondering if this is a complete waste of their time, they stand around and talk to the often half hearted and nervous students about jobs that the students are likely unqualified for.

After about two hours of this half of them go to lunch, which is provided by the university. They talk to each other and laugh easily over the free food and drinks. Then they return to the floor and switch with their booth mate so that the other may leave and enjoy the free food. This is, I imagine, difficult for them because they have to watch their comrade walk away from the room full of awkward college students as they are left alone to defend the table from those who have come solely for the free loot.

When a student stops to talk to them, they ramble on about their company and ask what the student wants to do with their life . . . a question that most college students cannot answer because they honestly have never thought about it for any length of time.

At this point I'd like to move to the other side of the conversation.

Students are at the career fair for one of three reasons. Either they were guilted into it by a professor, are desperate to find a summer/post college job, or they have lost their last pen and need a new one but are unwilling to drive into town and buy one from Wal-Mart. Regardless of their reasons, these students are here.

Some of them are professionally dressed to the best of their ability, and some are wandering around in their grease-stained gym shorts and thread bear University hoodies looking lost and out of place. Collar and tie or no, the student will be stopped by numerous potential employers practically begging them to bring validity to their trip by being something other than a useless excuse for humanity. Unfortunately this seems to happen surprisingly little.

If a student wishes to speak to the representative, then they are nervous and incapable of looking good due to nervousness and the fact that they are surrounded by nervous people. If the student is simply after loot, then they have no answers to the recruiter's questions and make the lot of us look like fools. In any case, the entire event is a nervous laugh and a half.

Back to the reps. When you speak to them, they are sizing you up. Will she be a good employee? Does she seem confident? Why does she shift her weight between feet so often? They gesture randomly and seem desperate to find a way to give you something to look at other than them while they talk. But really, where else are you going to look . . . at the floor = shy(bad), at the ceiling = spacey (bad), off to the side = distracted/not listening (bad) so what's left?

This is a good way to find out how you deal with pressure, and a likely place for panic attacks for chlostrophobics and those who hate crowds. It makes college seem even more like a hill that you must climb before you can reach the sheer cliff of the working world. I just hope that there is some sort of climbing kit included with my diploma.