Seriously, not kidding. Alright, maybe I am kidding and it can’t hurt to attend but just don’t expect much. I understand that removing yourself from situations to meet new people and/or companies is never a good idea regardless of how you look at it. You can stumble across that one person or company at any moment and as long as you are prepared it could be the turning point in your career. The problem though is that the career fair usually = typical out of college $36,000 a year job that not a damn person, Gen-Y or not, would usually find rewarding. Penelope Trunk says it best,

Out of college jobs suck. Everyone wants reasonable work, not just Gen Y.

You are probably thinking, “I have to start somewhere to work my way up, right?” It is a valid question and there are many different thoughts on this, but I believe having that mentality with your career will only stunt your growth because you should always strive to find something that you enjoy, no matter what.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you know everything and that we should be the CEO tomorrow but I am saying that you should like what we do and work hard to find a company willing to teach us how to do better.  Find a company that you feel like wants to help you get better.  That’s what this journey is all about, learning from others. I often say that age is not a barrier, rather a number that can be silenced by ones ambition, passion, and ability to learn from those who are willing to teach. Here is the full post by Seth Godin that made me think about my past experiences at career fairs and what initially inspired me to write this.

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The day after I wrote this post and started editing it, I found Ms. Career Girl’s post, “The Best Education is Self-Education,” and Matt Chevy’s “I’ll Never Go Back to School,” which are both great reads.  I want to dig a little deeper, ask some different questions, and think about it from another angle though.  Before I start with my thoughts on college degrees and questioning the value of them, please know that I believe ongoing education is one of the most important parts of life and can honestly say that Self-Education has taught me more than anything.  I also understand that Medical Doctors, Lawyers, and Bio-Molecular Engineering probably need years in a classroom.  This is more about the ‘other’ majors, and I find myself thinking about this subject a lot lately when I see my student loans every month and the career path I took is a completely different route than what I studied in college, Finance and Economics.  Sometimes you just have to wonder if you really needed that $60,000 piece of paper?  Lately, mainly because of the free information era we live in, I feel that I have learned more over the last year than the past 6 combined.  It is no longer about the resources available to us because we are only limited by our willingness to learn.  Everything is out there and the best part is that it’s free.  The bigger problem is knowing where to look.  Here are 5 questions that I sometimes wonder about…

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