Navigating the Spring Career Fair as a freshman

Everyone knows that the best thing that could happen a week after you return to Brown from a long and relaxing winter break is to be met with the highly-anticipated event of the semester (rivaled only by Spring Weekend): the Spring Career Fair. What's more exhilarating than putting on a nice shirt, printing out twenty copies of your resume, and sucking up to dozens of potential employers for an hour or two? I'll tell you: it's doing all of those things as a freshman that exactly zero companies want to hire.As I walked into Sayles Hall on a fateful Tuesday, I realized it might be hopeless —  I'd get lost in a sea of well-dressed upperclassmen with stacked resumes and tons of experience. Meanwhile, all I had to show for myself was my high school job as a youth swim team coach and the B- I got on the CS15 Tetris project. In hindsight, however, I realized that starting the job search as a freshman isn't all that bad. Here's why:You'll Learn How To Market Yourself: Whoever you are, and however much experience you have, every recruiter will ask you to tell them about yourself. Learning how to make yourself seem great in a short 30-second pitch is a helpful life skill, and it can’t hurt to work on it when there’s a good chance you won’t get hired anyways. Knowing how to talk about your strengths will be even more handy in a couple of years when you actually have some!Recruiters Are Nice: To my surprise, I didn’t immediately get shot down by most people when I mentioned that I was a freshman. Recruiters are happy to share information about their company, tips for success, and stories about their own experience — and this is true even for the ones that tell you they won’t accept freshmen right away. Additionally, many will keep your resume on file so you can come back next year. And remember, even if you're told, “Take CS33 and get back to us” (a real sentence from one of my conversations), it’s nothing personal (I hope?).   Free Stuff: If you see free socks, take them! Most booths will have a selection of free pens, laptop stickers, bags, t-shirts, and more. Only a select few leave a Career Fair with job prospects, but everyone gets a free hat.Despite the pressure to get a fancy internship right away, we as freshmen have to accept that upperclassmen are just better than us in every way. It took a while, but I learned to not be afraid of spending my freshman summer just chilling. If you do want to find a job, however, I also learned that it’s never too early to start building yourself up. Get a resume out there, learn how to talk to recruiters, and develop your passions so you can show them off in a couple of years. Most importantly, though: if anyone offers free swag, take it!Images via and via.