Shall We Head to the BASH?

Photo personnel: Isa Montes Source: Amy Suh

Sweating through their business casual attire and getting ready to fake it until they make it, students swarmed the Learning Common’s printer preparing to hand out copies of their resumes 15 minutes before the business, arts, social sciences and humanities (BASH) fair kick-off. 

As a sociology major, career events have always been something that were seldom talked about in my arts and sciences classes, though they were being pushed in the business and engineering schools. With the hope of getting some more “real world” experience this year, I knew I wanted to go into the event with some intentionality and avoid getting swept up in the rush of big corporate companies. Not to my surprise, the second I walked into the room, I was immediately overwhelmed, unsure if I belonged.

The job search culture at Santa Clara in particular provokes a sense of impending doom. Comparison runs rampant and competition is fierce. Maybe this was the real reason why I was so nervous walking into that career fair. 

The Career Center hosts a variety of events for Santa Clara students throughout the year, including BASH, which gathered over 80 employers in the Malley Center. The event provided students with the opportunity to network with corporate representatives at each table. Executive director of the Career Center Dylan Houle, said the center wanted to support students in being exposed to a wide variety of different companies. 

“The event is a great opportunity to bring in everyone who says they want to hire a Bronco,” Houle said.

So, was BASH bound to provoke anxiety amongst students before, during and after the networking event? I think yes. But is that entirely a bad thing? 

After soothing my nerves and navigating the room at BASH, I spoke with representatives at three different mental health care organizations and explained my desire for an internship this school year or a job post-grad. I had to learn to push myself to step out of my comfort zone and ask for what I wanted. 

Senior finance major Lauren Doyle, who hopes to land a post-grad job in real estate or finance, was also flooded with stress from the number of employers that lined up across the gym. Doyle said the real estate career fair was less nerve racking for her because there weren’t as many employers and the companies represented were narrowed down to her field of interest. 

A more intimate or tailored environment may have eased the anxiety that I and other students felt. 

On the other hand, finance major Emil Chaia attended the fair having already spoken with a representative about a summer internship and walked out with a scheduled interview for the following week. Sorry, can you repeat that? I was just looking to shake some hands. 

All the while, a senior studying communications, who wanted to remain anonymous, planned to go but “chickened out”– unsure of what post-grad looks like for her, she figured BASH would stress her out even more. 

It’s anxiety-provoking to think that, in just the second week of school, finding a job feels like now or never. It’s even scarier when you don’t know what you want to do after graduation, and you're surrounded by 80 companies that could take you 80 different ways in life. 

The common strategy for most career fairs is to corral many large corporations in a room together and have students go at it–which they did. But I appreciate that the Career Center also welcomed organizations, like the Bill Wilson Center which supports local homeless populations, that are more off-the-beaten-path in the Silicon Valley world of big tech and big money. 

Despite the fact that the big-name companies seemed to dominate BASH, students hoping to pursue post-grad work outside of the Fortune 500 shouldn’t lose all hope in what doors Santa Clara could open for us. 

“We would love to pursue an event centered around more non-profits and careers for the greater good,” director of employer relations and partnerships at The Career Center, Melissa Thiriez, said. 

For those without post-grad plans, don’t BASH your head into a wall just yet. We’re all in this together.