This was the first career fair for English that I have gone to and it really helped to open my eyes up to the possibilities that are out there. The speakers were all informative and clearly excited about their work and had a lot to say to us. The advice they gave was really helpful, particularly the advice they gave on internships. When I think of careers in English I usually only think about things like editing, writing, and journalism however, the four panelists all had diverse careers and in things that I had never thought about as ‘English’ careers.
For me the most helpful thing was their reassurance that even if your first job right out of college doesn’t work out, life isn’t over, there are plenty of opportunities out there and something will stick. I’ve always kind of had it in my head that if I can’t find the career I want right out of college or find that I don’t like what I’ve decided to go into, that I’d never be able to find something better. But each of the panelists said that they had kept up a variety of careers since college until they settled into their current ones.