TOC

Today was the Technical Opportunities Conference at CMU - aka the job fair for geeks. Despite having some very interesting things going on already, I decided to take a look around. Plus, most of my classes canceled for the event.
It's actually a lot of fun if you do it right. Some people just go because everyone is giving out free stuff, but that's such a waste. Other people are really intense about the whole thing, and I think that just ruins it. And some people end up standing in line forever just to talk to some big name companies (and I really hate lines of any kind).
What I did today (for the first time, and it ended up really great) was to search for the companies without big lines, but who also had very interesting booths. Usually I didn't know who they were, and sometimes I couldn't even tell what they did. But if you just start talking to some of the people manning the booths you can have a lot of fun. So often I found myself having really interesting conversations (sometimes about them, sometimes about me, and sometimes about something completely different). These are the people who are doing things that are going to be really big tomorrow, and you can learn a lot from them. And since there is no line behind you, there is no pressure to keep things moving. Sometimes I got so interested in what was being said I then decided to drop my resume on them.
Once again, I have found that the key to life is to be cool, confident, and relaxed.