Well if any of you heard, or perhaps have wondered what all the ‘hoopla’ about Career Fest was all about, let me tell you, it’s definitely a day full of opportunity to land an internship or for those who are graduating this spring—a job, a real job!!

I was skeptical as I awoke at 6AM this morning (Friday). After a week that seemed to be filled with constant homework and study I decided I wanted to use Friday (my day off!) to find a future internship, or perhaps my dream job

The alarm rang several times, and I had to stop and think why it was going off so early. As soon as my mind regained function I remembered that today was the big day! Jumped out of bed, new suit ready to go (Christmas gift—thanks Mom and Dad), got a shower, and made sure I had enough resumes to get my name out to the world. Ran to the David Center, where a helpful Career Development worker, Kay, would meet my friend Allison and I to set off on our journey to Career Fest in Columbus, OH!

Ok, so I’ll admit, in the past I may have sarcastically made several comments about Career Fest and how it seemed to be advertised as some wild party, instead of what I really believed it to be. However, I take back any sarcastic or semi-negative comments I had before going to this event. I learned from the old adage “you can’t judge a book by its cover!”

So we arrive—finally…Columbus is a bit of a hop, skip, and a jump from Walsh. We check in, and get our paperwork with a handy map to navigate around the crazy maze of careers and opportunities. If anything, you are simply overwhelmed at how many businesses are fit into one area. It’s as if you have the entire state of business opportunity – and perhaps other states for that matter, packed into one room, awaiting your arrival, questions, and resume.

Allison and I felt that we had to take some time to prepare ourselves. We finally fought our way through the crowd and found a seat to map out our plan of action. We quickly ran into our friends from Walsh and I saw some of my friends from Mount Union, it was nice to see the familiar faces and know that even though this was such a huge event, Walsh was well represented.

We finally worked up the nerve to enter the maze of opportunity, as I would like to call it, and decided that we would start with some smaller—lower profile companies to brush up on our communication skills and then hit our big interests companies towards the end –just as our career development professional, Kay, had instructed.

The time began to fly by as I checked off companies, getting me closer and closer to my top 3. It was surprising how you plan on a certain business being the job for you, but quickly find that it’s the least expected companies that actually may have the best fit for you in the long run. Take the company Progressive for example. I had no clue they had so much to offer, as far as an internship, especially for Junior Corporate Communication majors, with a minor in Management Information Systems. I felt as if I landed a job as I walked away from talking to their rep. Now perhaps I didn’t, but I had a great feeling that I was marketable enough to catch their eye, and perhaps have a decent chance at landing an internship for the summer!

Finally, we took one more lap around, making sure we covered all bases. When Allison and I, and the other Walsh students met back up we had so much to tell one another about our experience. Most students had a great experience. We all were impressed to find that there was such a need for undergraduate students—when we had expected all along that they would only want graduating seniors—this was not the case for this year’s Career Fest.

Overall, I would recommend an event like this to anyone interested in bettering their future. For who’s to say that through this “maze of opportunity” and at times severe confusion, that there is not a light at the end of the tunnel—a future job position with your name on it, waiting to be filled!

Check out this link for more info (I thought it was cool how Walsh is used as one of their pictures for a college):

http://www.ofic.org/careerfest/index.html

Also, check out the pictures (above) of Career Fest in Columbus, to see what I mean when I say how much they have to offer!

Hope you all have had a great week and that you have a safe and enjoyable weekend! I better get going as my friends Angela and Karly are coming to visit from their colleges and I wouldn’t want to miss their arrival!

Well until next time…Take care,

Chris Burr