After working for the Daily Campus in the Photo Department, I have started to discover more things that are happening around the campus. About a week before, I found that the 2015 Spring career Fair was going to be on Thursday, April 2, 2015 at the Student Union Ballroom, so I was required to do the grabs on Thursday during a weekly meeting with the Daily Campus staff to make sure that we could cover this event.  (“Grabs” is whatever events we are photographing for the Daily Campus that are not in the budget.  So we don’t have to cover it, but if I am interested in covering it, I can do it as a “grabs.”)

As some of my friends told me that hiring managers at the Career Fair would be mostly interested in juniors and seniors, I have never gone to the Career Fair before because I am currently only a sophomore. So I guess a part of me did want to use this opportunity to work as a chance to also make myself familiar with the Career Fair before actually attending it during my junior and senior year.

I went to the Career Fair holding a camera after my class was done before noon. It was intimidating at first because I was suddenly crowded by people dressing professional and prepared. So I told myself that I am just here to take photos and finish my job, so it’s fine if I don’t want to talk to companies. Then I went to talk to the person who is in charge of this event to make sure that I will be allowed to take pictures. She was really surprised that someone from the Daily Campus was actually here to take photos, so she kindly introduced me to talk to Amanda Carchedi, who is working with the Center for Career Development, whom is also such a friendly person to talk to and also offered me kind help.

I finished my job pretty soon after I found some perfect angles to take pictures. And after talking to people working for this event and getting more used to the atmosphere, I was actually getting more comfortable being there by then. I thought, “those are all nice people who are interested in talking to students, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt just to talk to a couple of companies even if I am not expecting any interns.” Then I saw people from Altria so I decided that should be where I start, simply because Altria happens to be the company I chose to do research on for my BADM course. Conversation went smoothly after I introduced myself and showed my interest in the marketing field. Because I wasn’t expecting anything at all, the conversation actually came out more natural and relaxing than if I was just here to network or look for positions. This is definitely the most impressive event I was ever covering for the Daily Campus. Not only did I get my work done, but also I can relate this to my future career and learn from it. At last I asked for a business card from the person I was talking to and made sure to send a follow up email the next day to keep up the networking.

I never thought I would do any of this when I first came to the US as a freshman, not working for the newspaper or networking with employers. But sometimes it is exactly the crazy things you have never even thought of that bring you out of the comfort zone. Every experience is totally worth of your time as long as you learn from it.

Mingyuan (Avery) Chen ’17
Sophomore, UConn School of Business
Mingyuan (Avery) Chen is a UConn sophomore majoring in marketing, and also an international student from China. She came to UConn as a freshman, and started working for the Daily Campus in the Photo Department from January 2014. Avery has been dreaming of being a racing driver since age 15 and it has gradually become one of the most important goals in her life. Another fun fact is that Avery has always wanted to go to Utah. View Posts