Career speed dating

Career fair season is upon us. The first begins today and the second will be on Thursday. For many students, these career fairs represent an opportunity to gain interview experience and scout for companies that offer interesting career prospects for life post-graduation. But for others, career fairs epitomize the superficiality of job hunting.

Ideally, a career fair goes something like this: student walks into CH2M Hill Alumni Center with a list of the companies he or she wants to talk to, finds every booth in a matter of minutes, talks to each kind and helpful company representative for as many minutes as he or she needs to exhibit a good personality and win the them over with his or her charming smile. As a result, he or she receives calls from every company they talked to requesting interviews and does so well in every single one that he or she ends up actually having to turn down several job offers so he or she can accept the one from his or her dream company. And he or she lives happily ever after.

But let's get real; it doesn't happen like that — even if it is a slightly exaggerated depiction of what students are guaranteed should they decide to show up to the career fairs and "put themselves out there."

Unless the student hopefuls have taken numerous business classes, they are probably not informed about the ins and outs of career fair success. And even if they are, there is still no guarantee that anything will come of the experience, because it all boils down to two things: how long you can hold a fake smile on your face and how much you can talk yourself up in as short a time as possible.  

At least in speed dating situations, participants can tell whether or not the other party is at all interested through genuine expression and body language. At career fairs, company representatives are trained to act impressed, even when the applicant doesn't stand a chance.

If we really think about it, the highest chances of scoring an interview or getting hired at a career fair go to the people with the biggest ability to brag and exaggerate their abilities. So what career fair participants are encouraged to do is talk a good game, maybe even brighten up their resume and convince companies that they deserve the job in question.

Bragging and self-righteousness are rewarded while sincerity and honesty are punished. In these fast-paced situations, students might bring up qualities and experiences they've never had because they feel pressured by lack of time to be the best candidate, even if they aren't.

Therefore, what really ends up happening at career fairs is the confused student, who has not been trained in fast-paced interview situations, walks into the fair without a resume and without a clue. Maybe he or she finds one or two booths for companies that seem interesting, but doesn't know more about them than what is presented on the brochures and what the representatives say. When students decide to approach a booth with questions and instead get a mini interview for which they don't have answers, they leave more hopeless than when they came.

Perhaps it's a symptom of today's economy, shallowness in the job market or a result of today's complete dependence on technology and a constant demand for instant gratification. Whatever it is, this is not the way it should be. We shouldn't have to decorate and trim our entire body of work simply to get a shot in the game.

Editorials serve as a means for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale or diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board's majority.