Guided Discovery hosted the annual Opportunities Fair on Wednesday, March 20 from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. in Hege Library.

Guilford students were invited to attend and learn about various current and postgraduate possibilities. Employers, recruiters, internship hosts and graduate schools participated in the fair, along with alumni and parents, in hopes of offering students insight into the different opportunities available to them beyond Guilford’s campus.

Organizers of the fair sought to provide students with more than just a networking opportunity. The Office of Communications and Marketing gave students the opportunity to update their LinkedIn headshots and a virtual Q&A session with Guilford alumni was held from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. upstairs in the ColLab.

The Q&A session was moderated by Guilford Guides Amber Slade and Shelley Ewing. Participating alumni included Billy Millman ‘14, Katherine Helms Cummings ‘83, Jason Terry ‘05, Laura Myerchin-Sklaroff ‘04, Kevin Tiller ‘12, Josh Weil ‘15, Leise Gergely ‘06, Alicia Miles ‘10 and Mara Stern ‘17.

The participating alumni answered questions about their journey after Guilford and their professions, touching on different topics of discussion related to graduate programs and beyond.

The Q&A session began with introductions and moved into specific questions posed by the moderators. These questions included, “How did your time at Guilford College inspire your personal and professional journey?” and “What kind of experience does your field or company find valuable?”

In regards to the first question of interest, Cummings spoke on the value of her experiences with journalism and writing at Guilford. An advocate for environmental and social justice as well as rural healthcare, Cummings related these experiences to her work after Guilford.

“Critical writing and research skills, knowing how to do the research so that your work is really easy to verify if somebody calls you out on something, I think is essential,” Cummings said.

Cummings has also been a panelist with Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Climate Reality.

Terry built off of this idea, further emphasizing the significance of writing skills in professions.

“The writing was essential to me too,” Terry said. “I remember being in a session like this as a student who was preparing for grad school, and people said that Guilford would teach me how to write quickly and effectively, but I thought they just brought someone in to tell me that. It turns out that it was true and when I got to grad school, I did feel like 20-page papers weren’t that scary.

“And now I write a lot of grants and other things for the state department officials and officials from the government in Mexico, so I feel like being able to write effectively and quickly being able to state your point is really important. I tell my staff here now to say what they need to say and then stop.

Terry, who is currently working as director of exchange programs at Global Ties U.S., continued, discussing the collaborative work Guilford made easier.

“We learned a lot about collaborating in different fields and we had the perspectives from life from different backgrounds,” Terry said. “(I am) in a role now where I have to be a generalist … I don’t know any of those things, but Guilford gave me the skills to find out what I need to know in order to do my work well.”

The Q&A session shifted its discussion to the different qualities and characteristics employers typically look for if in a position to hire new graduates.

Millman, who is currently working as president of Bowtie Brands, added his thoughts on the question.

“I won’t care if people, as far as experience, haven’t worked before,” Millman said. “For us, it’s simply a matter of having the ability to learn. Other than that, writing is huge. Professionally, there is a lot of writing going on, from reports to speeches and if you don’t know how to write it kind of caps you a little bit. It puts you in a different bucket.”

Millman provided those in attendance with some insight into what many employers and recruiters look at in resumes and interviews.

“On your resume, I don’t look at what school you went to but I do look to make sure you graduated,” Millman said. “The other big thing is to take a minute before your interview and plan out what you are going to say. You need to sound articulate and if you can make it through that first round, you’re fine. It’s all about getting your name through the pile of other names.”

He drew upon his experiences in looking at job applications to provide students with an example of an application that stood out to him personally.

“Someone submitted a cover letter the other day and the first sentence of his cover letter was, ‘Thanks for taking the time today to read about the awesome guy who is,’ and then blank, blank, blank,” Millman said. “It was definitely different.

“I got on the phone with him and said, ‘Let’s see if this is going to be someone who is an outside-the-box thinker.’ I think that that’s the biggest thing. You don’t have to have experience, you don’t have to have credentials for three to five years, you just have to be able to stand out.”

Myerchin-Sklaroff, who is currently working as researcher, evaluator and grant writer at Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, discussed how the smallest of things can make a significant difference in standing out to employers and recruiters.

“Being able to go out in public, being able to be polite and professional and to represent corporations well, that is what a lot of places look for,” Myerchin-Sklaroff said. “Being able to demonstrate the skills and being able to put a smile on your face even when people are driving you crazy.

Myerchin-Sklaroff emphasized how a lot of these skills are commonly built and honed during one’s undergraduate years in school.

“A lot of those skills are picked up in things like working in retail or other customer service positions that you might do while you are in school,” Myerchin-Sklaroff said. “Being able to recognize what skills you are learning from those experiences and then translating those onto a resume if you do have them, is an added bonus.”