Career Fair- Day One

Forgive me if I come off as niave or closed-minded, but I made up my mind to go to the career fair because you should. Not because I thought there would be a wealth of information, that I would meet some interesting people or get to imagine my future in a bunch of different and exciting ways, or that I would be a viable candidate for any jobs. I decided to go because I figured I should try this kind of thing so when people ask me in 12 months why I am still unemployed I can honestly say I've tried everything there is to try, to get some practice talking to the types of people who are hiring and confront some rejection. This was not an especially optimistic outlook, which is certainly why I dragged one of my coworkers on this adventure with me. This is my Canadian friend, and we've career adventured together before (Hello, Toronto!). Although she isn't graduating for another year, she whipped up a resume and gamely came down there with me this morning.

We both had investigated the list of employers, and came up with a barely overlapping list. I am very interested in government service, regulation and the environment, and she is very interested in biofuels, energy technology and outreach. We printed off our resumes, edited them, re-printed them and giggled nervously all the way to the career fair. I was feeling anxiously optimistic, until we showed up. We were greeted by hoards of undergrads in classic black suits who were prepping themselves on the couches outside. Neither of us own black suits, and we are both wearing our nicest "seminar quality clothes," which in the context of employment, is actually nothing special. I have no idea what you would actually study up on before entering the fair, and that made me feel even LESS prepared. But there was no turning back. We got name tags, lists of presenters, a deep breath and entered the first room.

In the first room, booths with info and banners lined the room and filled it's center. The nervous suit people waited quietly in lines for a chance to join in the friendly recruiting banter. It was noisy and crowded, and I knew there is no way I'll be able to read a list and find anyone on the map (and I don't know who I am looking for anyway), so we traded Good Lucks, and I walked around the room to see who is there. To get my bearings, I introduced myself to some people that no one was talking to- they were friendly enough, and even though their field sometimes requires biologists, they did not want my resume or even my email address. Ouch. There were a lot of engineering, contracting type people around, all of whom were glad to send me away immediately, I got to thinking this was going to suck, a lot actually. I walked past one booth that had a flier for "internships for grads and undergrads" but the person there couldn't answer my questions. Arg.

But I ran across one of the employers I had Googled just before we walked over, and they were very friendly, really happy that I knew what they did and happy to talk up the training opportunities there (again, I am not the ideal candidate, but I believe I would be a perfect fit after 6mo on the job). I left them my resume, which they made some notes on while I collected their cards. Ok, this is not so bad. And back at the "internships..." booth, I met the hiring manager for a major bio remediation firm. I was pretty honest, I've never considered working in bioremediation now, but it sounds like something I would enjoy at lot, and it's important to me to find work that agrees with my values. She was really nice, and I traded my resume for her business card (she put notes on it, too).

I met some guys at a software company that just likes to hire smart people to do good work (yeah! I could do that), and told the air force recruiter that after spending 10 years working towards this specialty, I wasn't especially interested in complete retraining. I talked to a guy at PA Civil Service who recommended I take the Civil Service exam to be placed with employment in the State, and learned about some other training opportunity at the National Energy Labs. I got tacit disinterest from several other places, but the two employers I am most interested in impressing weren't even there today.

It was actually kind of fun, learning about different places people work, imagining myself in different fields, trying to show off my interpersonal skills. And it helps to have to articulate yourself to someone who might offer you a job. I felt almost silly for being so nervous before I got there. Then, back at work, my friend and I got to field all the questions from our coworkers about who was there, what do you say to them, what happens then, and then? And I realized again that it is tragically common in my field to make career choices based on the slimmest of information. So yes, I am still shopping around for a calling, and hopefully applying to a lot of jobs soon. I've contacted the bioremediation people already to ask about specific jobs, and tomorrow, we are going back to impress some more people. Wish me luck!

And while I was feeling so awesome about acting like an independent professional all day, one of my co-workers asked if I would consider being the female vocalist for his 80's power ballad cover band. (I said I had other plans for Valentine's, but maybe later... Don't wait up for the perm).

My life is pretty awesome.