Why are you in college? Most people that pursue a higher education intend to get a full-time job at the end of their college career. If you’re interested in employment then you should take advantage of career fairs! A common misconception is that career fairs are only for upperclassmen. This is completely false. Anyone and everyone that is serious about getting an internship or a job should attend. I acquired my first internship with State Farm Insurance the spring semester of my freshman year. Believe it or not I was mocked (by other students) for going to a career fair as freshman. I was told that I would never get a job and despite what others said, I got a job and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I made in college.
I attended my first career fair in the fall of my freshman year. I was under dressed, wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt and I walked around to get a feel for the event. I realized that I wasn’t prepared to be in such a setting. However, the following spring I went to the career fair with a stack of resumes and I was dressed to impress. I spoke with every company that was recruiting CS students. About fifteen minutes into the fair I met a very nice recruiter that was interested in talking to me about who I was, why I chose CS and how I developed my skills outside of school. We had a very nice conversation for about twenty minutes, it was by far the longest conversation I carried during the event so I made sure to leave a resume before I walked off. Ten minutes after I left I received a text and I was asked out to dinner to speak even further with the recruiter.
That night I went out to dinner, talked to my recruiter for about 2 hours and we scheduled an interview for the next day. I went through a 45 minute interview and a week later I got a job offer. I was offered a paid internship which included a relocation stipend.
The best part is that my first internship turned into 8 consecutive internships and a full-time offer. My internships were consecutive because I was given a laptop and asked to telecommute by working over the Internet during the academic year. I got to work for a great company, meet a lot of people, and get paid to put my education to use.