What a Saturday! Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go to three networking events!  They were all one right after the other but I was able to attend all three (somehow).  Two were on campus and one was in LA.  All were absolutely wonderful and insightful but I am going to focus on my trip to LA.  First, a little background…

Earlier this week I ran into several recruiters at the Harvey Mudd dining hall.  They were representatives from Universal Creative, the theme park attraction designers in the company.  They were advertising their panel and their flyer indicated opportunities for Theater majors!  Naturally curious, I attended the event that night.  They described their division of the company; they do everything from conceptualizing to implementation of new attractions and experiences at the Universal owned parks.  They hire a variety of engineers and artists to make these visions come to life and operate in efficient, safe ways.  I really enjoyed interacting with the representatives and hearing them speak.  I wasn’t sure where my interests and passion for creative management/organizing fit into their organization but I left my resume anyway.  A few days later I got an email inviting me to their learning center at Universal City Walk for a networking event.  Still unsure if I was really interested in this field, I decided to take the opportunity anyway.

I usually feel very confident about networking but this event was unlike anything I had been to before.  It was far less casual than the networking events I had been to.  The conference room was divided into engineers and “creatives” (art/architecture/theater).  Upon speaking with the other candidates, I quickly realized how out of my depth I was.  Many were extremely passionate about theme park design, touting portfolios and chatting about other professional mixers they attended.  Not that they were unfriendly, but I felt out of place in an industry that I stumbled into less than a week before.  But the recruiters must have seen something in my resume, so I plowed ahead.  I had a lovely conversation with the intake representative, trying to be as honest as I could.  She guided me towards some areas of their organization where my skill sets might fit and I discovered that she was friends with one of my internship bosses.  Overall, I am still not sure if theme park design is right for me.  But I’m glad I took the opportunity to go outside my comfort zone.  Because although I felt destabilized in the moment, it gave me the confidence to know that I can work through any situation by just calming down and doing it!