Bad Attunement

Ask any student at Grove City what the Career Services prides itself in (aside from being nationally acclaimed for their job placement rates) and they might say the size of their Career Fair. The way I read their posters goes something along the lines of “We have the LARGEST career fair in the world! You would have to be a fool NOT to come! Literally just walk in and BAM instant friends with Jeff Bezos!” Exaggeration? Maybe. But, being a Grover, one normally arrives at the Career Fair prepared.  I say normally. Despite how hard the Career Services tried to prepare freshman Bobby, he was going to go in his way.

They encourage everyone who is a student to show up, even if you don’t know exactly what job you want to have. This means having a resume, dressing up, and having a set of answers to potential questions memorized. What does this have to do with sales? Well, when you are at a Career Fair, you are essentially selling yourself to companies. You want to appear professional and competent (as all Grovers are of course). Freshman Bobby was there for the free stuff. However, let us consider how an interaction should go if a determined seminary recruiter wanted to strike up a conversation.

Generally, a person starts an interaction at a Career Fair with “What do you do?” or “What are you looking to do?” The issue is “What do you do?” can come off as offensive because the other person might think you are equating their value with what they do and the question “What do you want to do?” at least for me, is not that helpful because I have no idea what I want to do “for the rest of my entire life”. If, as in the example of the seminary recruiter, he/she wanted to practice good attunement, a better question would be “Where are you from?” or “What excites you? Makes you curious? Your passion? Etc”. This way, the question is more opened ended and neither party feels uncomfortable. Also, there is a good chance that the poor student walking by wants nothing to do with the job or school in question. By asking different questions the interaction, which is why people come to the Career Fair in the first place, will be much more enjoyable.

End of the story, I looked great, got lots of free stuff, but next time I’ll arrive with better questions and, perhaps, a resume.