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Conversation 2 - Career Fair

Narrator: Listen to a conversation between a student and an employee in the university career services center.

Employee: Hi. Can I help you?

Student: One of my sociology professors suggested that I come to the career services center and talk to you. She thought there was going to be a career fair soon where I could talk to different companies about a possible summer job.

Employee: Well, these are classroom-to-cooperation career fair. That’s our largest fair every year. We get representatives from over 100 companies and they actually conduct interviews right here on campus.

Student: Great! What kinds of companies?

Employee: This year we’ll have representatives from all the major technology companies in the area.

Student: Oh. Then I don’t know how helpful that will be. I’m a sociology major.

Employee: Well, that’s fine. Sociology students often get jobs in marketing, administration, human resources. Tech companies have openings in those areas.

Student: Well, I’m mainly interested in working with people, in human services.

Employee: Well, in that case, we do have a smaller fair coming up, with smaller companies and some public service organizations. This one might be a better fit for you.

Student: Yeah. I think that was the one my professor was talking about.

Employee: Most likely. Now, have you been to a fair like this before?

Student: Not really, but I just show up and talk to different companies, right? I don’t have to register or anything, do I?

Employee: No, you don’t have to register, but I highly recommend that you come prepared.

Student: Prepared?

Employee: You should dress professionally and have copies of your resume with you.

Student: Copies of my resume? Do I really need that?

Employee: Well, it’s not a requirement, but a lot of students come to our career fairs. Plus, we’ve opened up these fairs to the public, to people in the neighboring communities. So anything you can do to make yourself look more…well…look more professional. That’s gonna set you apart from the other job applicants.

Student: Um..I don’t even have a resume. I’ve never written one before.

Employee: Oh, that’s not a problem at all. Have you been to our new website? It has all sorts of information about how to write a resume. And once you’ve written it, you can make an appointment to bring it in to us at the career services center and have someone look at it with you.

Student: Okay. So I really need to have a resume just to get a summer job?

Employee: That depends on the company, but it’s a good idea to have one.

Student: Okay. I guess I’ll need to have one sooner or later anyway.

Employee: Oh, and we’ll be adding other information to our website eventually.

Like we’ll have a list of the companies that are going to be at the career fair by the end of the week. You should check it out and then maybe do some research on the companies. That should help you when you talk to them too.