Yesterday I went to an internship fair at UW. My first as a participant, and was it ever an experience I won't soon forget. The world virtually opened up before me.
My competitive advantage over my younger colleagues was soon very, very obvious as I schmoozed my way around that room, talking to business representatives, marketing myself, taking my time and waiting in line where appropriate, shaking hands and introducing myself to those more formal, and for others just going in with, "So do you have anything in the communications, social media, marketing, and PR realms?"
The responses ranged from, "How about all of the above?" to, "No, we're looking more for software engineers who can do coding, but you should check back with us at X time."
I handed out many, many copies of my resume, to probably a little less than half of the businesses there. That may not sound like much, but there were plenty I didn't want to work for. And it was really nice to be able to avoid them, and to have the ability to choose my destiny. To be selective in my career path feels like the greatest freedom and power. My experience in school, writing, working here and there, and the maturity that parenting forced me to quickly adopt, are all finally adding up to a pretty impressive totality that I can put to use for myself--too feed and care for my family.
Because they're who I'm doing it for. And myself, of course, but I want to see my kids and Megan provided for, and be able to live comfortably. Not to be beautiful and take vacations all the time, but to afford, like, new gaming systems, games, and albums when they're released. And a variety of instruments to keep my talents up, and the equipment to record their sounds and the nice padded room to do it in.
Do you remember me mentioning my competitive advantage over my colleagues at the internship fair? Want me to explain myself? Good, me too. One word: people skills. It amounted to basically overcoming my fear of sounding dumb and just going around and being the People Person that I am, talking to impressive business reps I'd never met before, feeling comfortable, asking if they had anything open in my fields of study--and getting lots of results. More than I expected. I mean, like, in my backpack right now, there's a folder with eleven or twelve business cards and flyers for companies who are waiting for emails from me.
Two fellow students that I spoke to afterward, who had been at the same fair, did not have the same results. One scored a shitton of free candy, and the other was hoping for more of a ... something. As for the younger students, they were dressed really nicely, often awkwardly, like it was their first time putting on a tie and tucking in their shirt. Then, there were other kids who had really nice, snazzy outfits on, well-fitted and smooth business greys and UW purples.
Anyway, the more inept youngsters spent way too long talking to just a few businesses reps, asking them elementary stuff they could figure out on their own, like how to write their cover letter. I mean, I waited in a line for about 10 LONG minutes, in that hot, sweaty, huge, and packed conference room with my heavy coat and backpack on, to talk to a Fred Hutchinson rep for like five seconds. This greasy boy at the front of the line kept asking inane questions, incredibly nervous and unable to offer any responses, smiling and laughing nervously, and just going from question to question. I questioned whether anything was sinking in.
The next table over was for KEXP, a cool Seattle radio station, and that was much more fruitful. The guy there was really helpful. He was sitting there sweating, and had gotten done with his own long talk with a really tall, really young kid with rock and roll sensibility but not much business sense. Reminded me of myself at that age. I opened with, "Sick of talking yet?"
Luckily it worked. He laughed and said he doesn't talk much in his normal life, so it's extra weird here. But we got to gabbing, and it was much more my speed. There's an opportunity there with their little-known metal show that I'm gonna try to edge in on, and a few others that are up my alley.
After that I got a bit more confident and just started making my way down the three aisles, lined on both sides with businesses, dancing through the crowd with my big awkward messenger bag on, asking around, feeling people out, schmoozing. Throwing my resume out when appropriate, always asking first, and alternatively just writing down contact info when desired. Some reps didn't want a resume, but the majority did. You just have to be able to feel people out and ask the right questions.
All the middle-aged reps and I were very comfortable with one another. It was great. Even Denise, public defender for Pierce County, who, when I asked what was the appropriate way to address her, said, "Denise," with a laugh. A couple reps turned out to be fellow fathers and we ended up talking about kids.
The internship fair was scary and stressful going in, but once I got going it got a lot better, and afterwards the stack of opportunities added up pretty high. I'm quite pleased.
Now to figure out what zillion pages I'm not going to be able to get done reading before class tonight. International political economy (which the lessons from helped me schmmmooooze successfully to a potential employer who exports his product to developing nations).
Success!
