Every Dark Cloud Has a Silver Lining…
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 / Bookmark & Share
By Rini Rajan, MBA '11
Business formals, resumé in hand, pacing the hallway in heels and still keeping the smile; to pitch in your 30-second commercial over and over again. Career fairs, expos, Business Horizons, it is all happening right now, and like it or not, each of us is part of it.
Companies are here to recruit you; why else would they spend the entire day, travelling through the Blue Ridge Mountains to reach Virginia Tech? It is ironic though, how easily students are taken aback when recruiters do not respond in the way we expect them to. In the recently held Business Horizons, most of us were left cribbing that we still didn’t have interviews. Well, when it comes to finding an internship or a job, we just need to be patient. This I say, with experience.
Flashback time!! Rewind back a year, my first Business Horizons at VT, same story, the same experiences, an interview with XYZ Company, but no further response. Six months later and still no internship in hand, I make my plans to a possible 8000-mile travel back home, when I get a call from Bambi at Advance Auto Parts. As she speaks, my mind is racing trying to figure out when I applied there! And then she says, “At Business Horizons our manager spoke with you, and he is interested in a possible on-site interview...” Wait a second, Business Horizons!! Oh wow, did that long querulous day actually result in an interview?
Apparently it did; 30 seconds at Horizons had an impact to last those six months and get me an internship, allowing me to experience working in one of Americas Fortune 500 companies. It was almost unbelievable but felt great! Every dark cloud has a silver lining; in my case, the horizon literally was my silver lining.
This blog is not a promotional act for the job fairs; it just expresses the reason that inspired me to look at the long walk in a different and much more positive way. I realized in America if you want to find your way, you are expected to walk; how else would you explain footpaths being addressed as sidewalks and zebra crossings as crosswalks (smile). And, while you walk, you must be willing to get lost, only then would you be able to explore news paths. So go ahead, get inspired and find your success direction.
On a lighter note, there is really no better place than “Hokie land” to get lost and thus find new direction. McComas, McBryde, Hancock, Whitmore, Smith, Owens, and the rest…. you tell me the difference!! (Smile again)
MBA Program Note from Barry O’Donnell Director of Career Services: Career Fairs are intended to be an arena where employers can present their companies / careers to generate student interest and certainly, to meet potential candidates. However, they are not intended to be “job” fairs where candidates are interviewed. Some companies do conduct interviews if they have scheduled rooms through Career Services, but it’s only a small percent. The goal of Career Fairs, like Business Horizons, is to identify candidates whom they hope to see submitting resumes via Hokies4Hire when they return for their actual interview day(s).
originally published November 2010