3 Cities & 14 Interviews: One Tufts Senior's Career Fair Experience(s)

Brian Yi is a senior who attended three out of the four Career and Internship Connections fairs this winter break. Since CIC is new and a lot of people don’t know what it is or how it works, we wanted to pick his brain on the experience. We also thought it might be insightful for students attending this week’s mega career fair day: SciTech Fair and Internship Fair on Wednesday, Feb. 12.

First, let me introduce Brian. He’s an economics major aiming to go into consulting, law (law firm setting), finance, or government after graduation. He’s mainly scouting jobs in New York, DC, and Boston (the locations of the three of the CIC fairs, along with Los Angeles).

What is CIC? 
CIC is the result of a partnership between 17 colleges, like Reed College, Johns Hopkins University, and Tufts. Together, they hosted career fairs over winter break that were attended by 265 companies who want to recruit from top schools. Find more info on their website: cic.experience.com

So what do you actually do at CIC? 
Brian explains it this way: “The CIC event for each city is broken up into a 2-part day: the morning section consists of networking, meeting employers - similar to a career fair. The afternoon section is interviewing. Before physically attending the CIC events, I applied to the positions that were open for interviews. If selected, you attend the CIC event and interview on site. Each interview was 20-30 minutes.”

Tip: “Because I was interviewing for different industries and positions, I had to make sure to remember the skills each respective employer was looking for. I reviewed each job description before each interview.”

Brian’s tips for other students going to career fairs:
“Take advantage of the opportunity to talk to a number of different employers in one setting. Even if you don't think you'll like the company, talking with them may yield surprising results. I did interviews for companies that I thought I had no interest in, but it turned out that the position would be one that I would enjoy.”

How were the fairs/cities different from each other?
“New York was more corporate and fast-paced. DC had a lot of public interest firms and nonprofits, with passionate people. Boston had a whole mix of different types of employers.“

In addition, Tufts hosted networking events with alumni in NYC and DC. 
Brian went to both, and he says he always finds networking events useful - you just have to keep an open mind: “I always enjoy attending networking events simply due to the fact that I expand my knowledge base and research. It's a small world so you can make connections between people very quickly at these types of events. In addition to speaking with alum in law, consulting, finance, and government, I also spoke with people who were outside of my areas of interest. I always like meeting Tufts alum because you never know who you're going to meet, and you don't know who that person you're meeting knows. I've met people who work in industries outside of my interest, but they were able to put me in touch with people who are in my area of interest. ”

Brian likes networking, but if you’re a little less enthusiastic, check out our previous post on how to tackle the tricky business of “mingling."

How have you looked for jobs? 
“I've done "networking" by doing research, meeting people, and expanding my knowledge of different industries and employers. I've used on-campus recruiting and Jumbo Jobs to apply to positions open to Tufts students. I've used Tufts CAN (Career Advisory Network) to search the database of Tufts alum. I've also contacted family, family friends, and other people in my vicinity.”

And how’s the job search going? 
Brian did 5 interviews in Boston, 3 in New York, 6 in DC. He had a couple rejections but also scored some second round interviews. Sounds like he’s well on his way to a job offer - we wish him the best of luck!