Job Persona

There was *another* career fair Tuesday (1/20). That makes three in a span of seven days. I didn't have as much time to prepare for this one because Northwestern bumbled a little and sent out incorrect dates and company information, but there weren't too many companies that I was interested in to begin with. I had pretty good conversations with two places. By my count, that makes eight solid leads from three career fairs.

You might say I'm exhausted. Wearing a suit a lot and being outgoing and cheerful takes a lot of energy, for me at least, so I'm glad Northwestern's career fairs are done for the winter.

I've been really busy finding a job, and this adds to my exhaustion. I'm talking with three headhunters right now and trying to follow up on the career fair leads and also staying on top of opportunities I got through Monster. I'm glad there are so many opportunities that it makes me busy. My wife and I are watching a t.v. show from a few years ago set in the Great Depression; I hope things don't get that bad.

But here's something cool: The dad of a friend from college runs a business in California. I wrote him asking for advice or leads or anything. He says his people are undertasked until the Spring. He may have work for me then. I appreciate that. But then he did something really awesome: he looked through other companies in the professional organization his company belongs to, found companies in Chicago that are doing work like his firm does, and compiled the contact information of higher-ups that I should contact. I'll have to send him a fruit basket or something. After getting his email, I spent a few days carefully writing a cover letter for these companies. I sent my whole application to a few places and have already been well-received at one. So there you go: opportunity everywhere.

I guess I should focus now on keeping hold of the leads I have. Maybe I should slow down with the applications and spend more time bothering the HR people I talked to at the fairs. It's occurring to me that I don't know what to do right now. They always talk about writing thank you notes after a career fair; is this the reason why?