Artifact - Searching for a Summer Job

The Summer after my Freshman year, I was hungry to find a job. I knew that experiences counted for everything during college, and that if I wanted a leg up when applying to jobs after college, having work experience would be vital.

However, I also knew that as a Freshman, I was not very marketable. My skills were very limited, and there were very few companies that were even considering hiring Freshman. The odds were stacked against me.

I got an email from Handshake, UW's internal job posting board, telling me about an upcoming career fair event. I figured "what the heck", and decided to sign up. I saw that a few employers were hosting 1-on-1 sessions, which immediately jumped out at me as a great way to stand out among the crowd. On a whim, I signed up for a 1-on-1 session with CoMotion, not thinking much of it.

When my time slot rolled around, I put on a nice shirt and smile and logged into the video conference. I then had a nice, 15 to 20 minute talk with my future manager, who told me about the job and what it entailed - I would be a student assistant in a hardware incubator, helping startups harness the many tools and machines available to design and prototype their products. The talk went well, but I thought nothing much of it - after all, who would want to hire a Freshman.

Then, a week later, I got an email back, telling me they wanted to schedule a follow up interview. One round later, and I got the job! Little did I know that this would be the start of something great for me. I entered this job shy, unconfident, and with little to no practical work experience. Nearly a year and a half later, I left with marketable hands-on skills, boosted confidence and networking skills, and invaluable connections within the UW startup community, which would eventually lead to my next job.