My dad had heard of a career fair in the area and had been bugging me to attend. The fair was free and open to the public, so I thought, “Why not? What did I have to lose?”
Being a career fair beginner, I asked Carmela to join me as she had been to several career fairs. We printed out a few resume copies to hand out to potential employers. We also dressed a bit more professionally, which always makes me feel uncomfortable. I don’t know what it is about dressing professionally that dampens my confidence. I think I don’t feel like me and sometimes it projects my nervousness.
Carmela & I chatted with several recruiters, but most of the companies there are hiring sales people or customer service representatives. The U.S. Secret Service was there, too, but I don’t qualify for most of their positions as I lack a government security clearance.
The fair was a bust, but we weren’t surprised. Recruiters don’t tend to recruit designers at fairs because they recruit in bulk, so it makes sense to only look for generic jobs, like sales and customer service personnel. Rather than let it get us down, we went to the mall nearby and hung out there for quite a bit. Retail therapy is a good stress reliever, right?
How about these other posts?:
After J visited San Franci...
Competent You strive to...
I was cleaning out the unused ...
July's theme is: Are you read...
I've always been a fan...
Thanks to Karen for this a...
Ah retail therapy is definately a good stress reliever And in this case, a well deserved one!
Retail therapy is a good stress reliever! You should get used to dressing like a pro
I’ve never been to a career fair, but I imagine it would be interesting.
Retail therapy is always my favorite! Nothing better than getting yourself something new to make you feel all fuzzy inside!
Retail Therapy I find is the best therapy you can go to besides blogging. My aunt engages in this when she can instead of a real therapist. It’s the only thing that works for her.
Sounds really interesting. Never get the chance to attend such, and I am sure people will enjoy – and be able to find a new job there. At least.
I’m sure many of them were able to find a job. Just not me. Hahaha. It’s definitely not a place for an extremely specialized skill, I think, since they tend to hire in bulk.
Man! It seems like we really do think a lot alike. I hated going to career fairs as well and putting on a suit. I went to Johnson & Wales in RI and they’re a career-driven institute for sure. We had courses especially for situations like this, and I remember in my first year just how much I dreaded that class. It really did make me feel uncomfortable even more, and less confident, and not myself whenever I put the suit on.
It made me question too as to why did we have to? Most people I used to see who were in the same school of technology as I, besides the professors, wore their everyday clothes (jeans & a t-shirt type deal). Even when I worked for a bit in a life insurance company who didn’t have a creative department at the time, wearing that suit wore me out more than sitting there doing the work.
Wow, you really went professional! I don’t own a suit at all. Hahaha. I just put on a nice shirt, a blazer, and some dress slacks. And, yes, I agree with you! Most of my designer friends just wear their regular everyday clothes to their jobs. That’s how it was at my old job, too, and it was in the financial industry! It seems like a lot of companies now are trying to cultivate a very friendly, comfortable, and more laid-back atmosphere to keep their employees happy. I’m a fan of being able to choose when I want to go casual or not.
Uh oh, retail therapy when one’s attempting to find a job?! o_o;
… That sounds exactly like something I’d do, LOL. And I agree about the ‘dressing professionally’ bit. I got rid of all such things from my wardrobe awhile back, pretty much, as I never wore any of them, anyway. They make me feel uncomfortable in my own skin and I feel they age me in an unflattering way, so no thanks! ><;
Best of luck, though, with your job search in general for the future!
PS: I love your current layout! The colour scheme is so cute.
I remember going to a careers fair last year. I’d been to some in high school as they always gave us the opportunity. As an adult, I realised most of the jobs were targeted at unemployed people of a mature age. :S We just picked up a bunch of brochures and left. Most of the jobs were to do with hospitality. Like you said, they recruit in bulk at those places.
I guess it would have been a disappointment but I hope that the fair helped somebody! You’re better than that, Anne. Just hunt online and build up a portfolio and whatnot. You’ll be found and hired in no time!
I went to a “career fair” my last two years of high school. Not sure what it is called here but I’ve never heard it called that. There really wasn’t anything I liked but ehh. It was okay.
I never been to a job fair, I am sure it is quite nerve racking, especially when you know sooo many people show up to these things. Retail Therapy is always good. Hope it relieved your stress.
Retail therapy is always gooood.. It can be your stress reliever.. Sorry about lacking the Government Security Clearance :((( and as for me now my stress-reliever and therapy is gym
Thanks! I didn’t end up buying anything, but my friend did so I just shared in her joy of shopping. Hahaha. Yes, the security clearance is very hard to get… which is good, right? That way not anyone can just have access to the nation’s secrets!
Retail therapy! Although I’m not a shopaholic, I agree with retail therapy being a good stress reliever. While I don’t really understand how can spending one’s money be stress relieving (because I’m poor lol and well…I’ll probably just go and spoil myself with Starbucks to relieve my stress or just listen to music), I’ve seen a lot of teenagers who do this very often. I guess I’m just someone who always questions “is this REALLY important?” before actually buying something, even though I know it makes me happy haha. I value money too much? xP
As a computer science major, I’ve lucked out on the career fairs I’ve gone to. Sorry you weren’t as lucky. What were you wearing that made you feel so uncomfortable? At least you get options. As a guy, there’s not really much for me to wear. Anyway happy job hunting!
Oh, hey you changed theme! Your new theme looks so cute!! I like the toy camera header and what you did to your comments.
The last job fair I attended was the one my school organized for graduating students and yes, it’s sad but job fairs don’t usually recruit designers/artists.
Retail therapy is always good
I’ve never heard of career fairs. Maybe it’s cause I’m young and not at much of a age to be searching for a career, but I guess it’s just not the sort of thing you’d see around here.
It seems kind of interesting though.
And oh yes, I love retail therapy, haha. Lots of the time I’m pretty happy with just window-shopping though, something my wallet greatly thanks me for, haha.
It’s been a while since I last visited your blog @.@ And when reading this entry, I completely understand how you feel. I went to a career fair for my college, and out of the 100 booths there were, I could only really talk to 5 booths for something just slightly related to my major. Not even FOR my major, just slightly related.
If you are still looking for a job and you live near New York City, this is a REALLY nifty website I discovered: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mome/digital/html/news/digitalnycmap.html
Sorry if it looks sketchy, if you really want, you can just go to the NYC.gov site and try to navigate to the NY Digital part of the site. It basically maps out a lot of tech startups that are hiring (not helpful for me cause I’m more biomed), some of them needed programmers, but I saw some of the artsier startups need designers, I hope this helps
And retail therapy? It only helps me when I have money QQ Other than that, I would find it stress inducing D: