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English major Ross Burlingame ’09 wrote the following account of his experiences last month at a networking event in New York City organized by the College’s Office of Career Services.
I signed up for the Arts, Media, and Communications Networking Night not simply to network, but to find perspective on the professional field that I will enter after graduation. Though many students were intent on finding a job at the night’s proceedings, I was content in talking, watching, waiting, and listening to the generous alumni who decided to attend the event.
Students arrived by bus at the Harvard Club at roughly 7 p.m. Before alumni began to arrive, students looked over resumes and portfolios, as well as grabbed a cup of coffee or a light snack. When alumni arrived, students were encouraged to approach them without hesitation. From there on, it was up to the students to facilitate conversation and engage alumni.
The alumni represented a wide range of industries within the arts, media, and communications fields. Though I was primarily concerned with talking to writers, journalists, editors, and publishers, there also were professionals in the advertising, marketing, fashion, museum, nonprofit, and education industries with whom many were engaged in conversation for the entire night.
I recall speaking with Marilyn Balamaci ’74, a former editor [at Parade and Family Circle magazines], whom I both commiserated with and drew inspiration from as we talked about the direction of the print media industry. Though she primarily knew about the journalism industry, she was very interested in giving me information on writing and theater professionals who had graduated from Lafayette College. By the end of the night, she had suggested to me that I talk to another alum, Anthony Caleshu ’92, a published poet, playwright, and novelist with whom I have been in contact since the event.
Despite recent apocalyptic news items on the economy, the job market, and Ponzi con artists, there was a palpable sense of hope on this night. Many alumni, even those experiencing the pratfalls of the current job market, were incredibly encouraging, usually attesting to the idea that a job search is never complete, and that success is not judged on these terms.
Initially, I suffered bouts of social awkwardness, but I was resolved to make it work. Not to find a job—to make it work. There is a world’s difference between the two, and those who didn’t know it then do now after attending the networking night. We were not there simply to find jobs, but to realize the need to find connections beyond the confines of our social networks. Just being at a college in such close proximity to New York City showed us the tangible connections we have been afforded by attending a school with the prestige of Lafayette College.
At the end, the league of suited and dressed men and women piled onto the coach bus, exhausted from the day. Some sat still, vexed by their own quandaries yet still buoyed by the slight embrace of hope in this job market, while others talked, or merely smiled, but with an elation stemming from the thoughts that their dreams may one day be proved. Before whispers died away and a sluggish snore could be heard from the back of the bus, you could still see a particular student simply glowing in his seat—”I’m really happy with how tonight went,” he said. “I think I’m really happy with how things went,” he continued, looking through his portfolio.
Perhaps success is a state of mind, but networking is an integral part of it.