career fairs

On Saturday, I braved the oncoming snow storm to attend a career fair in NYC. It was quite possibly one of the dumbest things I've ever done -- risk my life for a job.

I was really not looking forward to going because, as I may have outlined previously, career fairs are completely lame. You stand in line to talk to a person for an exorbitant amount of time only to realize that the person sucks and that they're just going to refer you to apply online. I could have done that without talking to you person-whose-name-I-no-longer-remember. Either that or they take your resume and stick it in a gigantic pile where it will magically vanish into a vortex of forgotten resumes.

Exactly this happened at the career fair, only this time I was more savvy about my endeavors. Yes, this time, I just walked around aimlessly, talking to people without any real expectation. I observed the undergrads at the fair, all eager about their future once they left school. I smiled knowingly to myself, knowing that they were destined to face a life of ineptitude, dissatisfaction, and unfulfillment. That's what happens when you sell your soul to The Man.




It's weird -- I swear some people are just born robots meant to conform to a certain model. Over half the people there were of this variety. At one booth, I was asking this one guy about his job and how he felt about it. He basically said it was just a job. I asked him if this was his passion. He said it was just a job. It's your life, I said, You gotta live your life.

It's more important to make money, he said.

I walked away. I'm not wasting my life on you, buddy.

Another booth proved more successful. I talked to this pretty chill guy who gave me some advice and just told me to keep trying. He told me about how he interviewed at over 10 places before he got this job, his ideal job. He was nice, if ultimately unhelpful. It's not like he could hire me, even though we were getting along fabulously.

He took my resume and looked it over. As it turns out, I had a higher GPA than him, and I had scored higher on the GMAT than him. Here he was, three years into his career, and I had scored higher than him on the GMAT.

That's when it hit me that finding a big corporate job doesn't really matter. It isn't a measure of my worth. In fact, it probably just means that that person is a conformist who can fit into any model. I may not be the easiest person to get along with, but I am a person of principles. I won't change just for a job. I don't care how high the stakes are. I will retain my individuality and my point of view at all costs.

Finding a job really just comes down to luck. So far I have been extremely unlucky, but if it's meant to be, it's meant to be, right?

When I came back from the job fair, I had to weave through an obstacle course of fallen trees and power lines. It was like playing a very frightening game of Operation, where your very own life is on the line. Three out of the three roads home were blocked, but my dad and I crossed one of the road barriers anyway.

We still don't have any power, and are currently powering part of our house with a generator that we used during Hurricane Irene. My sister is calling this "The Revenge of Irene." I believe her. Nature has not been kind to us this year.

Today I skipped going to my internship. It's funny, really, because I woke up really early to make sure that I would get up on time and gather all my things. I got dressed in the dark so I probably looked ridiculous. I was all set to go when I got into the car and heard the traffic report. There were delays of at least one hour at the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus lane was currently closed due to a car fire. There was no way I was getting into the city. There was no way I was going to spend three hours or more sitting on a crowded, smelly bus only to get to work late and face the abuses of my "bosses."

So that's that. Onto tomorrow.