The Pursuit of a Career

Careers are confusing.

They are, after all, what we’re here for. Take Careers Day. The U of A’s annual multi-discipline job fair took place in Butterdome last week, and everybody who showed up came to sort out their career.

Here’s what it actually looked like: a good 7,000 of us from all disciplines and with varied employment backgrounds showed up at a maze of vendors including construction companies, oil corporations, engineering firms, professional associations, retailers and so on.

With so many competing employers selling their career options, a good number of students can walk away from an event like that with an employment offer and, eventually, money.

But a career?

Careers aren’t singular events. They aren’t just jobs, or classes, or learning experiences — and they definitely aren’t just job fairs.

But all of those things are parts of careers. Regardless of differences in the industries or employers that do or don’t interest them, students have this in common: an inevitable trajectory that links experience, skills, knowledge into a career that eventually becomes more clear. Job fairs are just a small piece of that puzzling process.

So while none of us — not even fourth years and transitioning alumni armed with resumes and ambition — walked away from Careers Day with a career, the event was a step in our respective career paths. It’s not going to happen in a second, but by the end of our university experience, we all want to exit this maze with an idea of where we’re going and how we’re getting there.

Let’s just hope “there” includes at least a job. And money.

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