The short:
?? MGoBloggers serving bagels at the Alumni Association’s Welcome Wednesday.
@? The UM Alumni Association Building, 200 Fletcher Street.
ETA? Thing is 8AM to noon tomorrow.
Y? The bagels (+coffee, hot cocoa, tea, blue books) are free.
The long:
Here’s how you get a job after college. One day near graduation you will think of this brilliant tweet in the subject of your interest. It will get picked up and retweeted by some super highly respected person in that field, which will get hundreds of prospective employers to follow you. When you post your graduation photo they’ll all DM you, say they recognize your genius, and offer you your dream job on the spot, provided you’re willing to work from home and occasionally wear pants.
Here’s how you actually get a job after college. A good connection you made who saw you were super serious about going into their business will recommend you because you’ve stayed in touch. Then you have an interview, at which you will be judged in part on your selection of pants.
Here’s one way if you’re a student at Michigan to score connections to a ridiculous network of successful people. So the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan has this tradition on Wednesdays when school’s in session where you come to their main building on 200 Fletcher Street (like behind the Michigan League) and get free bagels, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Once you have your free food you’re welcome to talk to AAUM people, or sit on a couch with some friends, or meet other students, or just grab a table area and study.
Here’s the hook. Sometimes you get served by someone interesting, like the school president, or the women’s basketball team, or that time Big Jon Falk came with his favorite water bottle.
Other times they have to fill in with local football bloggers. Tomorrow is one of those times, when Brian, Ace and I will be on hand for the bagel-serving/schmoozing. It runs from 8AM to noon. We’ll have at least one of us there the whole time.
Also free blue books. I wish I’d learned of this before senior year: any time you go into their building you can walk out with free blue books. They will also make you a set of 30 business cards.
How do you tell a student from a vagabond blogger type? Only a student can look that exhausted yet carry a backpack so unaware of the treasonous nature of back muscles. But bring your M-Card in case they doubt you.
Why the Alumni Association? Very shortly you’ll be one, i.e. an old person like me who goes around answering “I wish I’d made more connections” to “what do you wish you’d done better in college?” At that point what you know won’t matter nearly as much as who you know, and the Michigan alumni network is so good at this that the football team makes it the centerpiece of their recruiting pitch. All those wonderful goodies that they give us to be members—game tickets, tailgates, local clubs and events, trips, scholarships etc.—are to keep that network engaged. The sooner you tap in, the more you can get out of it.