Can I help you with anything?
a person approaches the stand I share with three other guys, he’s looking at our folders, afraid to make eye contact with anyone of us. It’s obvious - he wants information but is afraid to ask:
Hi there, can I help you with anything?
This is how most conversations this weekend started. No, I wasn’t trying to sell the new VA-QUME CleanR, I was actually promoting computer sciences and especially my own faculty on the first trade fair targeted towards future students who are looking for a way to gather as much information about their possible college in as little time as possible.
To be honest, before I went there, I was a little bit afraid. I don’t really have a problem talking to people from my college, not even if I never met them, but it’s a different game if you’re talking to absolute strangers. After all, you have to deal with a myriad of situations and attitudes. Whereas one person addresses you in the most formal way possible, someone else might be talking you down, for no apparent reason. However, to prepare for such situations, we were given the chance to follow a training session which included roleplays where you could practice difficult to handle situations.
After two days of standing there, pitching my college and helping loads of people (all our teams together gathered some 1400 addresses in just 14 hours (two days of seven hours each) - which, as I was told, is quite a lot.
When the first day ended, two other Comp Sci guys (second and third one from the left) and me decided to have a few drinks and get some chow and we all came to the conclusion that it was a blast.
Normally you’d argue that standing behind a small stand is bad for your mood, even boring … but no, it was great. I loved every second of it! Others totally agree.
Whenever I had time, I took a few shots here and there. Way too many, as always, but hey - pictures, often, say a lot more than words. Many of the lovely ladies and funny guys can be seen in the gallery - comments are open, so share your thoughts!
I’d like to end this entry with a quick “thank you” note to all the students that helped in one way or another and kudos to Jack for hooking me up with a spare SD card so I could continue taking pictures.
[...] Ten days ago, I attended an edu-fair as a student advisor. Thinking back, it was probably one of the most funny experiences I had while performing any job I had so far. The team was great, the aura was great and we had lots of fun. In essence, that’s all you need to have a good time. [...]