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Entry tags:
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Resumes
In a fit of I-must-figure-out-what-the-hell-I'm-going-to-do-with-my-life, I printed out resumes, got into a pretty skirt and top, got on the high heels, sucked it up, and went to the career fair for my college today. There were tons of companies and free stuff and oh god my feet hurt by the end(Grr. Hate the high heels. HATE.). But that's just the basic summary. For those who want to hear the gorier details, read on.
I still want to do grad school. That much is a given. The question tho is how to go about doing it. Right now, the foremost plan I have in my mind is to finish undergrad, find a job someplace that'll give me some good botanical work experience, save up some money, and then go back to school and do the grad thing. However, this brings up the question of "Gee, if I'm gonna find a job, I should, you know, start looking.". The career fair seemed like a good place to start for that. They had tons of ag/life science-oriented companies there, and hey, I got a couple resumes out to people, so it's a start.
I think all in all, I talked with about 10 different booths. About 7 or 8 of them were somehow related to the government in some sort of way, be they through the local natural science museum or the extension service or the USDA. So there's a high probability I'll be working for the government in some vein or another, which I was kinda expecting. The other ones I spoke with were either nurseries or research-type facilities. It was a little discouraging how many people were more interested in horticulture rather than botany majors, but I'm hoping I'll still be able to fit in somewhere with someone.
From what I gleaned, I think I would ideally want to work with the museum of natural science or the uni extension agency. The museum is apparently opening up a research facility in a couple years, so that would be cool to work for. It's just the problem of, you know, waiting those couple of years for it to be finished. The lady I spoke to suggested that I should try volunteering at the museum now so I can get my foot in the door, so we'll see. The extension agency also sounded appealing. I like helping people out with plant things(even if I'm don't always give the greatest answers in the world. >_> I guess that'd come with practice and experience), so that'd be a good place to do it. Furthermore, according to the gal I spoke with, if I heard her right, the agency will apparently foot most of the bill for its employees to go to grad school at the uni. Which would be a really sweet deal. The drawback would be that it would take longer for me to finish, but hey, at least it wouldn't cost as much. So we'll see about that.
So I guess I got some good information, and I have a lot of things to rifle through now. I guess I really can't say it was all that fun though. Going up to people I had never met before in my life and trying to make a half-good impression on them was NERVE-WRACKING. I got flustered and I tried to ask intelligent questions, but I guess I flopped more than I would have liked. :/ Not to mention my feet were killing me because of the heels and my back was killing me because of my backpack, so I was kinda fidgety towards the end, which maybe wasn't the best way to make an impression. I guess we'll see either way tho.
A couple of things happened while I was there. I'm not sure if this was the career services' idea or WHAT, but they had a roving video camera guy at the fair. He gave me some problems. While I was talking with one of the USDA people, the camera guy decided now would be a really good time to hone in on my conversation. Now I was already nervous, but a guy with a camera in my face that I was NOT prepared for? FLUSTER CITY. I felt like such a dork because my tounge froze up and I sounded like a complete idiot, with lots of 'um's and 'er's punctuating my speech. Yeah, great way to make an impression. Stupid camera guy. Why the heck were they documenting the fair anyway?
We seemed to also have some free-stuff hunters at the fair. When we walked in, we were supposed to give our id over to a gal that would swipe it and print out what was actually a rather nifty little name tag with our name, class, and major. Those who were there for the fair but weren't students had the little generic "Hello, my name is..." tag. But there were two people there that had no nametags, and were carrying bags that looked to be CHOCK FULL of stuff. Their sole purpose there seemed to be to snag some of the free stuff, as they never talked with the reps, and seemed to frequently try to sidle up and take things off the table while they were distracted. The most notable example I can give was at a table for a nursery. The nursery had some actually rather nice baseball caps on the table, and while I was waiting to speak with one of the reps(she was busy with the student before me), the lady of the pair sidled up and took not one, but TWO baseball caps. I've been trying to figure out ever since what she was planning to do with them. Was she some sort of free-stuff collector? Was she planning on selling it? Using it for herself? I really don't know.
Thus endeth Ru's second fair-type experience of the year. I should probably try to get some work done now. And finish my couscous. Mmm, couscous.
I still want to do grad school. That much is a given. The question tho is how to go about doing it. Right now, the foremost plan I have in my mind is to finish undergrad, find a job someplace that'll give me some good botanical work experience, save up some money, and then go back to school and do the grad thing. However, this brings up the question of "Gee, if I'm gonna find a job, I should, you know, start looking.". The career fair seemed like a good place to start for that. They had tons of ag/life science-oriented companies there, and hey, I got a couple resumes out to people, so it's a start.
I think all in all, I talked with about 10 different booths. About 7 or 8 of them were somehow related to the government in some sort of way, be they through the local natural science museum or the extension service or the USDA. So there's a high probability I'll be working for the government in some vein or another, which I was kinda expecting. The other ones I spoke with were either nurseries or research-type facilities. It was a little discouraging how many people were more interested in horticulture rather than botany majors, but I'm hoping I'll still be able to fit in somewhere with someone.
From what I gleaned, I think I would ideally want to work with the museum of natural science or the uni extension agency. The museum is apparently opening up a research facility in a couple years, so that would be cool to work for. It's just the problem of, you know, waiting those couple of years for it to be finished. The lady I spoke to suggested that I should try volunteering at the museum now so I can get my foot in the door, so we'll see. The extension agency also sounded appealing. I like helping people out with plant things(even if I'm don't always give the greatest answers in the world. >_> I guess that'd come with practice and experience), so that'd be a good place to do it. Furthermore, according to the gal I spoke with, if I heard her right, the agency will apparently foot most of the bill for its employees to go to grad school at the uni. Which would be a really sweet deal. The drawback would be that it would take longer for me to finish, but hey, at least it wouldn't cost as much. So we'll see about that.
So I guess I got some good information, and I have a lot of things to rifle through now. I guess I really can't say it was all that fun though. Going up to people I had never met before in my life and trying to make a half-good impression on them was NERVE-WRACKING. I got flustered and I tried to ask intelligent questions, but I guess I flopped more than I would have liked. :/ Not to mention my feet were killing me because of the heels and my back was killing me because of my backpack, so I was kinda fidgety towards the end, which maybe wasn't the best way to make an impression. I guess we'll see either way tho.
A couple of things happened while I was there. I'm not sure if this was the career services' idea or WHAT, but they had a roving video camera guy at the fair. He gave me some problems. While I was talking with one of the USDA people, the camera guy decided now would be a really good time to hone in on my conversation. Now I was already nervous, but a guy with a camera in my face that I was NOT prepared for? FLUSTER CITY. I felt like such a dork because my tounge froze up and I sounded like a complete idiot, with lots of 'um's and 'er's punctuating my speech. Yeah, great way to make an impression. Stupid camera guy. Why the heck were they documenting the fair anyway?
We seemed to also have some free-stuff hunters at the fair. When we walked in, we were supposed to give our id over to a gal that would swipe it and print out what was actually a rather nifty little name tag with our name, class, and major. Those who were there for the fair but weren't students had the little generic "Hello, my name is..." tag. But there were two people there that had no nametags, and were carrying bags that looked to be CHOCK FULL of stuff. Their sole purpose there seemed to be to snag some of the free stuff, as they never talked with the reps, and seemed to frequently try to sidle up and take things off the table while they were distracted. The most notable example I can give was at a table for a nursery. The nursery had some actually rather nice baseball caps on the table, and while I was waiting to speak with one of the reps(she was busy with the student before me), the lady of the pair sidled up and took not one, but TWO baseball caps. I've been trying to figure out ever since what she was planning to do with them. Was she some sort of free-stuff collector? Was she planning on selling it? Using it for herself? I really don't know.
Thus endeth Ru's second fair-type experience of the year. I should probably try to get some work done now. And finish my couscous. Mmm, couscous.