Okay, you are here. You moved into the dorm and you took your very first steps into your college experience and your future. Between school, socializing and the extracurricular, balance is seldom an easy endeavor as it is.

Now, it is your second semester, and the approaching summer will arrive before you even realize the weather is getting a few degrees warmer.

We all bear the burden of the enormous 21st century educational costs, and there is no better place to start helping out your parents—or any other benefactors in your life—than a free Career Expo on Valentine’s Day offered on campus at your disposal.

The easiest thing you can do is ignore it: find an alternate route to safely avoid the flyers and the potentially awkward networking conversations. However, embracing the uncomfortable truth that—likely in less than four years—you will be searching for a job.

You do not want to be the one struggling to fill in your resume your senior spring. Trust me on this.

Make time to invest in your future job and stop by the Career Expo. Check out the booths. You might find an interesting job or internship opportunity that will strengthen your resume and help you gain experience.

For example, instead of camping where you are comfortable—dealing with classes and relentless socializing—find somewhere to work this summer that will be a fun experience, a substantial resume-builder and a decent-leveler to your bank by next fall. Two of these camps will have booths at the Career Expo: Camp Oakhurst and Forest Home. Both of these camps are perfect opportunities for you to gain valuable experience.

Even if “camp counselor” isn’t your ideal summer job the work you do there can give insight to skills you can transfer to other areas. It may also offer challenges parallel to the ones you will overcome through your time as a college student.

Another recruiter that will be at the fair is Forge Technologies, which has little, if anything, to do with technology or forging. It is actually an application allowing retail or hospitality employees to claim hours week by week rather than being bound to a consistent work schedule at one location.

This kind of company is one that might go unnoticed by most at a job fair. So instead, consider exploring all options available. Be bold and learn more about companies that may not catch your eye at first. You never know what you might find.

These employers have a vested interest in Biola students—this is why they are participating in the Career Expo.

Simply by attending the Career Expo and gaining this kind of exposure, you already have a step ahead of other university students. So take advantage of it! Resist the temptation to wait until your junior or senior year to consider your future. Your future is tomorrow, and these opportunities will come and go before you know it.


Register for the Expo!