Return to my school

January 13

I went to ATL for the GT career fair and it was an interesting experience. It was my first time and it has been a while since I went back to my old campus. The flight was delayed because of the crappy weather in MN, so I got there around midnight. Stayed at E's place - they are nice enough to let me disturb their "looooove nest" for a night without charging any fee heheheh. Too afraid to stay at the hotel by myself :( No Russian with me this time.


I got to catch up with E regarding her pregnancy and learned a lot (I really mean that). Then I woke up in the morning - immediately jumped out of bed (literally) when I saw the time was 9 am. I should have been at school by 9 am, but my phone was still showing 8 am - but I didnt know whether my phone was showing MN time or ATL time. I called my hubby - also wanted him to get up early - and he informed me that it was actually 8 AM in ATL. So I was not late phew.

I showered and headed to GT. Totally forgot how crappy the morning commute in ATL is, got stuck on I-75 but was happy to listen to the Bert show for the first time since I graduated. Every time I went to ATL, I always was there during the holiday or long weekends. This totally reminds me of my old time going to school, listening to the Bert show and eating breakfast in the car while stuck in the traffic. My car must miss this old time - warm weather, good radio and smelling food in the morning.

So I did find a different street to exit to avoid all the traffic, I totally forgot how to get to GT from that street though. Took me a while to realize that I knew this street and found my way out. Luckily I was only late for 30 minutes and I still had another 30 minutes to get ready.


Once I got there, I helped my partner setup everything and people started lining up. Then I realized, they were all lined up for Microsoft (our neighbor). But 15 minutes before the career fair started, people are started lining up for our company. We were looking for CS/EE majors but we only got mostly BioMed majors. I did not know what to tell them about their careers :(

At the beginning, it was fun - talking and asking questions to each student, but after 15 students, I started losing my mind and voice.

I let the students describe themselves and proceeded from that point to ask them more questions. If I realized they did not say enough and waited for me to ask them, I wouldn't say much either.

Things that I learned from this experience are (If you are students):

1. Sell yourself and ask about the product and what I do every day.

2. Try to make yourself different from others because at the end of the day I will have talked to hundreds of students, and I won't remember you at all even though I have your resume. But if you are unique, I can recall you and send a good impression email about you to my HR.

3. In your resume, please place your best points on top because I won't be able to read the whole resume while talking to you. I just glance at your resume and try to see why I should call you back or pick you.

4. Know what you want to do. Do not ask your interviewer. Tell me what you want to learn and describe it. Stop saying you want to utilize your knowledge - if I am not the same major as you, I won't know what you can or can't do.

5. Talk to me instead of waiting for me to ask you. Be aggressive.


I knew everyone said these, but I did not understand them before. Now I am on the other side of the coin and everything makes sense.