Career Fair

            A few days ago I was privileged to attend the Career Fair here at BYU. It was something I was looking forward to because I had never been to one before. It was not what I expected either. There were at least a hundred different booths all around the WILK ballroom, and each booth was a different company. For example some that I saw were Target, OrthoPro, Girls Scouts of Utah, Aspen Grove Family Camp, Hertz, Novell, Air Force ROTC and many more!

I went around to several different booths asking the hosts questions about their company. The one I asked the most was, “What makes you hire someone? Is there a certain characteristic you look for?”  In my head I thought I already knew the answer. I thought they were going to say: dedication, efficiency, responsibility, communication skills, etc. However, that was not the case. Most of the companies said that they look to see if that person has a passion for that job. Without passion, a job is just a job and it’s no fun. They want their employees to enjoy going to work and be engaged in what they are doing. The other skills will fall into place because of their passion.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I am not the best at communicating with people, I get shy and sometimes it is hard to open up to people I have not met before. This has be a worry for me because I was afraid from my lack of outgoingness I would never get a real job.  What I heard about passion though helped me feel a lot better. Let me explain why. I love to dance, and I love to teach dance, and because I love to do it and be in the studio, I AM good at being with people, and I open up very easily to the dancers and their parents. In another situation I don’t if I would be like that, but because I have a passion for dance, the other important skills fall into place. I am glad that I went to the Career Fair, because it taught me this valuable lesson.