I am one person on campus who actually enjoys going to conferences and sitting through lecture after lecture, consuming tips and ideas from professionals. Any chance I get, I attend those meetings. I recently attended the College Media Convention presented by the College Media Association right after spring break. I’ve heard from professionals ranging from a senior editor of The Daily Beast/Newsweek to the writers of the Daily Show. Some may not enjoy going to conferences because the things they say may be repetitive, however I learned more from these speakers than I have anywhere else.
In the conference, the professionals spoke about starting your career after graduation. You might not know where you’re going or what you’re going to do after you graduate, but that might be better. This way you are more open to any opportunity and you can leave with multiple skills because of the diverse classes you took. Most of the speakers stumbled upon their careers unintentionally, and it didn’t even apply to their diploma. An international correspondent graduated college with a law degree, but had her first journalistic experience writing for Marie Claire magazine.
Other professionals started by seeing things as a hobby. New York Times reporter Brian Stelter had a blog when he was 11 years old about R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. Stelter just shows that you need to have the passion in order to succeed in your career. A lot of us have changed our major three times before we found out what we loved. Others still don’t have it all together but what I learned at this conference was, you can’t close any doors. You need to be open to anything.
Another good way to find out what you love to do is to join an organization. You can’t be taught to do something, you have to do it. You don’t have to be a journalist to write for the Chronicle or a public relations major to be on the Student Programming Board.
You can’t take this education for granted. Our professors know what they’re talking about because they did it. Our school also provides us with tremendous opportunities to meet with professionals that can guide us and even give us jobs. We can’t keep coming up with excuses of not knowing what to do or that nothing is out there. Quinnipiac presents us with plenty of chances to meet people in the real world, we just need to take them.
A lot of jobs are being taken because people can offer the same things; there aren’t original people anymore. You have to be different in the workforce and find your own niche in order to stand out. There will be people with the same resume as you so find something different you can offer. Like the professionals say, don’t do what everyone else is doing; be original. Jobs have to be created nowadays.
