My Experience at the Career Fair

Hi! My name is Kelly Dynan, and I am a senior here at Marist studying Public Relations and Global Studies. As an Account Executive at North Road, I work closely with the BeaconArts account, and I love it!

On March 3, the Marist Career Services center hosted its semi-annual career fair. There were about 60 different companies coming to the event, so after four different outfit changes and last minute edits on my resume, I headed over to the McCann center nervous, but excited.

I’ve been on plenty of interviews before, but the thought of going up and introducing myself to a stranger, and then trying to stand out in front of the crowd, seemed kind of daunting to me. How was I supposed to be memorable to these employers when they have already seen hundreds of my classmates already? This was basically really competitive speed dating for a job. I realized that it was my personality that would differentiate me from the crowd. In this day and age, and especially in the PR field, your personality is key. If you are boring, you won’t stand out or even be considered. Your personality is your selling point.

Like I said, I was somewhat skeptical about just walking up to employer and introducing myself. However, I walked up to the first employer and gave them (in my opinion) what I thought was a very professional handshake. To be successful in the public relations field, one must be outgoing, an effective communicator, and make people want to listen to what you have to say. With these three skills in mind, I applied them to every conversation I had with the employers. My personality was able to show through my conversations with the potential employers, and (hopefully) it was enough to make me stand out in the crowd.

Even if nothing comes from this, I gained valuable experience learning how to talk to employers, and how use my personality and PR skills to show what I would be able to bring to an organization.