On Friday September 15th, I attended the Fall 2017 Undergraduate Career Day hosted by STARR. In order to do this I had to create my STARR Search account, input my personal information so potential employers could see, and uploaded my resume. Since business attire was required for the the fair, I went with the recommended black suit, black pants, white shirt, and a non-flashy, red tie. Because the event was so big, the line to get in was massive and I had to wait more than a half hour before I could go in.
The fair was a great opportunity for me, and others, to browse through a number of companies in different fields and talk to their representatives to learn more about their company and the field. Unfortunately I couldn’t talk to any big financial companies that were there because the lines were too long and I felt that since I was only a freshman, they wouldn’t want me for an internship.
Now the main reason why I went there was so I could talk to the US Marine recruiter because I was interested in their leadership summer program. For me this was a benefit to have at the fair because it allowed me to talked to them for a little while and give them my contact information so I could learn more about the program and hopefully qualify for it. Then I did some more waking and I talked to a smaller financial company named Broadridge Financial Solutions that was looking for interns. I gave them my resume, but I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about their company and they didn’t seem enthusiastic with me either.
Another company I went to was Target. The line was short and I just wanted to see if they had any bookkeeping job opportunities. Unfortunately, they were looking for cashiers and clerks and didn’t mention any sort of bookkeeping position to me. The only company that was remotely interested in me was Enterprise car rentals, but I couldn’t really see myself working for them. All in all the career fair wasn’t a waste of my time and I was happy that I made the effort to attend because I learned about career paths that I was interested in and not so interested in.
However, I feel I would’ve been more successful had I attended a STARR prep workshop before I went to the fair. My resume definitely could’ve used some tweaking before the event. Also, I didn’t really research companies beforehand like I should’ve, so I feel that if I went to a prep workshop, they would’ve helped me pinpoint companies that I’d be interested in and then I could’ve focused on those companies instead of walking around aimlessly. Overall, I could’ve made the fair a much more productive experience had I gone to a prep workshop.