The Career Fair: A Senior's Perspective

A true story about confronting the uncertainty of entering the real world.

Hello all. This is a piece I wrote for a class with 1 AM Media in mind. It is the most personal thing I have ever written. Many of you are around the same age as me, and you might even relate to some of the things I wrote about. Enjoy.

Right now is perhaps the most pivotal time in my life. I am a twenty-two year old senior in college who is expecting to graduate in May. A little over a month before I have to enter the real world for good. I am perfectly comfortable admitting that it is daunting. I have spent my college career flying under the radar when it comes to entering the professional world. I did not sign up for very many extracurriculars. I never made much of an effort to find an internship that could potentially give me an advantage when entering the workforce. The only internship opportunity I had fell into my lap by chance, and thankfully it did. It was the first time I felt like I was doing the right thing in terms of beefing up my resume and gaining useful experience. My problem is, I have always wanted to be a writer, but I always wanted to do it on my terms. This is a problem because that is a very difficult way to make a living. So the big question is, what am I going to do with my life?

This week I received an email from one of my favorite college professors, Professor Robins (you can read about his incredibly impressive career as a music journalist here:Critical Conditions by Wayne Robins. Professor Robins inspired me to start writing my Substack, which is not only my most enjoyable creative endeavor, but it allows me to build a portfolio of my writing that will eventually help me professionally. Not only did Professor Robins open my eyes to Substack, but he provided me with encouraging feedback that inspired me to continue writing confidently. He may not know it, but he had an immense positive impact on my life. The email he sent detailed an upcoming assignment for our Interview class. Interviewing is not necessarily my thing, but it is my third time in a row taking Robins as a professor, and I ran out of classes to take with him. The assignment was a news story with interviews about the upcoming career fair at St. John’s. If you have made it this far, you can tell I took some creative liberties with the whole “news story” aspect of the assignment. 

I groaned at the thought of this assignment, not because of the work, but because I had to bring a resumé and participate in the career fair itself. I felt insecure about my work experience, mainly because I have not done much work in relation to my major. I also had roughly twenty four (ish) hours to make a resume between classes and work. I saw the assignment on Tuesday night, and the career fair was on Thursday morning. After my shift at a local bar on Wednesday, I decided to put together a resumé. I filled a resume building website with my experience and skills fairly quickly. As soon as I was ready to download it, the website asked me for $2. My Venmo card was declined because the site did not support the card. There was no problem until my other debit card was declined because my bank detected fraud (I got an automated call three times the next morning). I was out of cards to pass through this small, but apparently very strong paywall. My next plan was to copy all the information from the resume builder onto the Google Docs resume format. I finished around 2:30 AM. 

The next morning, I woke up and slapped together the best professional outfit I could, grabbed my brand new green notebook, and took off for Interview class. When I arrived at class, Robins gave us the rundown on how the career fair would pan out, as well as what we were expected to do for the assignment. He told us to interview three students and two employers to get an idea of what the career fair was all about. Easy enough. To be completely honest, I was very nervous. Maybe I was overthinking the whole thing, but the thought of approaching employers to ask them questions was intimidating to me. 

Our class arrived at the career fair promptly at 11 AM. Right before all the potential candidates arrived. We were warmly welcomed by Ms. Zervos, the Associate Director of Career Services, who let us into the field house and directed us to the floor with all the employers. We were greeted by several other St. John’s Career Services members who gave us a map of every employer at the fair. I stood on the outskirts of the fair, scanning the list of employers to see what companies would A) be a good company to give my hastily made resumé to and B) make for a good interview. I was quickly discouraged when nothing was piquing my interest. This is NOT because I think I am too good for any of the employers. Many of the companies would be excellent places to start a career. Unfortunately, none of the companies were in the fields I was pursuing. I always knew I wanted to be a creative, and these companies were more corporate. The intimidation of speaking to the employers for the interview assignment quickly compounded into the intimidation of finding a career. As my mind filled with questions about my future, I knew I had to dive into these interviews. 

The first person I spoke to after bravely walking onto the floor was a woman named Cheresa. Cheresa’s name tag read: Division of Student Affairs Career Services. I’m not sure why I approached her considering I was wildly underprepared to start interviewing, but she seemed friendly (she was). I asked her a surface level question about the career fair and she gave me some insights. 

“We usually do three small career fairs, like in the fall, but we decided to just do one big one this time around,” she said. 

With over 140 employers at the fair, this was THE big one. This made me feel a little more discouraged as a potential employee, but feeling like I was getting somewhere with my interviews. After we spoke briefly, she walked me over to another very nice woman named Paulette, who is the Assistant Vice President of Career Services. I was panicking once again, because I did not make the first move on this interview. This one was on the spot. Thankfully, my extensive history working in restaurants allowed me to come up with something on the fly. One thing about working in customer service that has given me an advantage is I can almost always come up with something good to say. Customers are always throwing curveballs, and I’d say I have a .350 career batting average. I quickly came up with a question about the relationship between the employers and St. John’s.

 “Great question!” Paulette said (It wasn’t). 

She then explained some nuts and bolts of the career fair, describing that there were internship and full time opportunities, 145 employers, etc. One quote stuck out to me. 

“[These employers] want to hire St. John’s students,” she said.

 That was a nice thing to hear. I know I mentioned my lack of interest and qualifications for these employers, but that’s not the case for every student at St. John’s. Many students might be perfect for these jobs and turn them into successful, fulfilling careers. Frankly, I hope that’s the case. Cheresa and Paulette were very optimistic, which I appreciated. They may have been hamming it up a bit because they want students to feel confident in their futures, but I sensed a sincerity in their voices. 

My next move was to interview students. I saw a girl I recognized named Flori. Flori is a senior Communication Arts major looking to work in PR.  I do not know Flori very well, so I figured she would make for a good interview. We spoke informally about the whole thing and she was happy to humor me for an interview. The main question I wanted an answer to was if she was nervous about her future, finding a job.

 “Yes and no,” she said. 

That is a respectable answer. It is normal to feel this way at such an important time in your life. Unfortunately, normalcy does not change the way we feel. Flori, much like myself, is confident but uncertain. I also interviewed a senior Accounting major named Anthony. I asked him about his intentions with the career fair. 

“I specifically brought two resumés for two companies, and I already dropped them off,” he said.

 In true Accounting major fashion, he was all business. I also ran into my dear friend and roommate, Mike. He is also a senior Communication Arts major. I asked him what he made of the whole ordeal after texting about it before he got there. 

“I only came to talk to MSG Entertainment, and who knows if I even do that?” he said. 

To someone who does not know Mike, that may sound like a strange thing to say. The truth is, Mike also wants to pursue a creative career. He has been consistently building a network, a portfolio, and honing his skills behind a camera. He has been getting real world experience as well as making real world connections. He is going to be just fine. 

When it finally came time to talk to at least one employer, I decided to make my move. The truth is, I will likely move back to Massachusetts after my lease is up in August. Which means I will likely be working in Massachusetts. I saw a company called “Mass Contracting Corp”. I thought “Hey, maybe they operate out of Boston and are looking for out of town talent.” I was dead wrong. I asked if the Mass in their name meant Massachusetts (safe assumption). 

“No, Mass is the last name of one of the owners of the company,” she said.

It may not sound as embarrassing as it was, but I can assure you, I wanted to leave my own body. My customer service skills struck out. The nice woman proceeded to attempt to save the painfully awkward interaction by asking me about myself. As I explained that I was there taking interviews, and I wanted to be a writer. She asked if I had written anything. I then proceeded to tell her about some of the things I have worked on and continue to work on, but in the back of my mind I thought about how ill fitting my creative writing aspirations were for a contracting company. 

“Maybe I’ll see your writing somewhere” she said.

 “I sure hope so,” I said as I walked away. I really appreciated her politeness, but it was time to get the hell out of the career fair. 

I grabbed my notebook and left the field house. Thoughts filled my head about what I was going to do with my life. I wondered if maybe I should have utilized my resources at school more. I wondered how I could turn my writing into a career. I wondered what I was going to do when I moved back home. I wondered if I’ll ever live up to my own expectations. Then it hit me. I knew the moment I applied to college that I was going to use these four years to learn about things that interested me. That is exactly what I did. I knew I was going to use these four years to improve my ability to create things that I like. That is exactly what I did. The truth is, if I am going to get a job just to make money, I can do that back home. What I really need to do is keep writing, and use everything I have learned to become successful. I am content with the decisions I have made at St. John’s. I noticed every success story starts with the person betting on themself, and that is exactly what I am doing.

Thank you for reading.

I appreciate it.

Until next time.

-CJ