In the wise words of Michael Scott (kinda)

Hello dear reader!

As this semester's career fair has come and gone, I hope you all had a great and successful experience. For my part, even though it was only my second career fair, I thought my confidence and comfort levels were exponentially higher at last week's fair than they were at last semester's.

My last semester's fair was a bit of a mess because I was pretty terrified of everyone and extremely insecure about my lack of experience. I had no idea what to expect, and I think that was a big part of my fear of it.

This semester however, I think I was a lot more confident because just having had a prior experience with this sort of thing helped a lot. I knew what to expect so it took the edge off of my nervousness a little. I also was more familiar and practiced with my elevator pitch and with just talking to the recruiters in general.

However, I had a lot of friends that went to the career fair last semester, but didn't this semester because they thought "there was no point" or "it was useless last time so why would this one be any better?" In short, they had become disillusioned with the process because they were of the mind that seeking out jobs and internships was a one-shot sort of deal, but in fact it is anything but. It's a process that takes both experience and persistence. And career fair is wonderful purely because you can start over each time, no matter what happened at a previous fair. This gives you the unique chance to meet new companies and recruiters each time you go and make a completely new impression on them.

Yes, I did get a ton of rejections because I am still a freshman, but I don't regret going and getting that experience. One recruiter even remembered me from last semester which I thought was amazing! Even though I didn't score an internship, I think I made a lot of lasting connections talking to companies about more than just their internship opportunities. So I implore any and all of you frustrated by previous career fair experiences, to take the opportunity to make new and better experiences! Sorry for the worn out cliche, but in this case it is true: You'll never know what will happen if you don't try.


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