The ASU Tempe Career Fair

In my personal experience, the best connections and opportunities come from personal interactions, and showcasing your talents in an experiential way. By attending public meetings, organizing events, writing stories, hosting discussions, and volunteering far and wide, I have built a sizable network for myself in the greater Phoenix area in community development, entrepreneurship and local business, historic preservation, sustainability, art, music, and museums. These kinds of skills and connections are project-based, and come through lasting relationships with my peers and mentors in the community.

As you might imagine based on the above description, career fairs generally aren't the friendliest in my experience to those looking to work outside of traditional corporations. Few nonprofits work at them, and even fewer offer any stimulating opportunities for growth. While I have gained a lot from working with advisors and instructors to (again) directly connect me with leaders in my fields of interest, I have yet to find any opportunities in a building flooded with people all clamoring for the same brand of attention. And so I begrudgingly headed to Tempe for this semester's biggest career fair.

Upon arriving, I saw pretty much what I had anticipated: a lot of tech firms, a lot of engineers, a lot of health majors, and a lot of opportunities to work in "marketing" and "development." I took a few loops around the two ballrooms which contained the event, looking high and low for a nonprofit which might offer me a personally fulfilling opportunity. The first trip was lifeless, but upon a closer look at the guidebook I picked up, I found something different: City Year.

Earlier this year, my friend decided to take a year off from her studies to participate in City Year, a program designed to get young adults involved in schools through tutoring and other supplemental education efforts. She went to Seattle, where she currently resides, and is living the dream while engaging critically with marginalized students so that they may gain the skills they need for the future. So needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to see them right in front of my nose.

I talked for about 15 minutes with the program's representative, and learned quite a bit about the application and selection processes, giving me great hope about my plans for after graduation. In particular, I was excited to learn of an option that didn't mean immediate long-term employment, nor immediate entrance into graduate school. Instead of the overwhelming instruction of Teach for America (to which City Year is a feeder program), I would be able to work with students on a more intimate level, and find the particular gaps in their educational experience to produce substantive change.

Walking away, I felt quite satisfied, and ultimately glad that I gave the career fair a chance. Sometimes good things hit you in unexpected places.