I've just been offered a job for the summer!
I have been speaking to this one company for about three months now, and finally, it has paid off. This past weekend I was offered a full time job for the summer back in Saskatchewan, Canada where I am from. I have had many summer jobs before, but they have all been pretty meaningless. I have usually worked at places where I got the job simply because a friend of mine worked there. Jobs at golf courses, and small town restaurants that have little or nothing to do with my major, or what I eventually want to do as a career.
This summer however, thanks to U of Minnesota resources, I have locked a job that is not only fairly lucrative, but one that could potentially develop into a very exciting career.
In January of this past year I attended the University of Minnesota Job and Internship Fair in order to try to make some connections with a few companies I was interested in one day working for. I had been to other job fairs on campus and have had a fair share of experience with the job hunt in the area as an international student and as such I had a strategy while going to a job fair such as this. I have realized in the last couple years that I would like to return home to work once I graduate. This can pose problems in that it can be difficult to talk to network with companies back in Western Canada while living in Minnesota all year long. To deal with this situation I would research the companies that would be attending the job fairs in order to identify international companies that would have locations in Canada. You should always research the companies you are interested in before attending a job fair, regardless of whether you are concerned about where they have locations, but this was what I was specifically interested in. Next you have to do what you can to make an impression on the recruiter during the short itme that you meet with them, and I have found knowing a lot about their company, and just being confident when you approach them to be very large keys in making this positive impression. After speaking with them for a bit, that is when I ask about their international affairs, and see if they would be willing to put me in touch with a recruiter from Canada.
This is not the process that will work for everyone, obviously, but it sure did for me.
Before going to a career fair it is very helpful to talk to someone who has went before just to get an idea of what you will expect. The scene can be somewhat intimidating at first and so it is also adviseable to go to a career fair in the earlier college years just so that when you really do need a job, you are comfortable with the process.