Being in the job market feels like this at times

Down: Drug Dealing – Police in Queens have announced a major undercover drug bust in Queens that netted 62 arrests. No word on why they decided to call it “Operation: Stampede” but the graphic is cute. (Gothamist)

Up: Shakespearean Theatre – New Yorkers love Shakespeare, judging by the number of Shakespearean plays being performed in New York this year. Overheard (approximately) in James Shapiro’s Shakespeare class: “the stars have aligned and this spring is the best season of Shakespeare I’ve seen in 40 years in New York.”(NYT)

Down: Politics – The 14 Democratic state congressmen senators in Wisconsin have fled the state and are staying in a motel in Illinois so that the 19-member Republican majority and Republican governor will not be able to push through very tough anti-union laws that have inspired mass protests in Wisconsin and Ohio. The Republicans can’t pass laws unless at least one Democrat is present. (Daily Intel, Bloomberg)

Up(?): Journalism – The “news recession” is over apparently, so some J-School graduates will probably end up with jobs. But be careful what you choose, or you might just end up counting pennies for ABC. (Atlantic, Daily Show)

Up: Apple Genius – Cult of Mac has obtained exclusive (read: unverifiable) evidence that Apple will soon be opening a new store in Grand Central. So if you’re going to Connecticut and you have a broken Macbook, you don’t have to go to the giant Cube anymore. (Cult of Mac)

Image via Wikimedia

Two free food opportunities tonight, giving you the chance to both fill your stomach and get a job. In Earl Hall at 7, SGB, the Center for Career Education, and the Barnard Office of Career Development are hosting a “Civic Engagement Networking Night,” with free food for attendees. Confirmed employers include Habitat for Humanity, the New York Attorney General’s Office, and Teach for America, and Bwog’s been told that there’ll be alumni such as former CCSC and Dems head Seth Flaxman, CC ’07. And speaking of CCSC, the first of two final info sessions for potential candidates will be held at 8 in the Lerner 5th Floor Club Space.

For those with a different career path in mind, Club Zamana is hosting an “Alternative Career Fair” in the Satow Room, also at 7. Careers discussed include “Arts and Entertainment, Business Strategy and Development, Culinary Arts, and Advocacy and Non-Profit,” and, more importantly, “refreshments will be served.”

According to CCSC: 20% of Columbia student council members favor swipe access reform — 84% of Barnard students find the current swipe policy inconvenient.

According to Bollinger: Few students understand financial crisis; students are generally happy.

According to Career Center rep: Career fair attendance went up 84% this year.

According to the Spectator Editorial Board: 3-1-1 needs to actually work in order to…work.

According to me: Last summer, my dad spoke to our dog more than he spoke to me.

Let’s welcome to the Internet Career Center’s new post-MonsterTRAK website. (Hopefully you remembered to remove all resumes, cover letters, etc. that you might have saved in the old system.)

Features of the new website include lengthy sections about everything from interviewing for jobs (“Men: Never wear white socks”) to the art of negotiation and a graph that illustrates how your skills can translate into jobs: for instance, a skilled researcher might be interested in “clinical research, market research, policy research, or magazine research.”  Plus, according to the website, “you will also be able to maintain a person calendar,” which is a calendar designed specifically for people, just like you!

LionSHARE will be releasing how-to tutorials in the coming weeks with information about using the new system and presumably an email annoucing its existence.

Kurt Kanazawa takes a journey into the realm of one of Career Services’ less orthodox clients.

On behalf of a dare, from myself mostly, I decided to actually open and critically consider a “Career Services” email. The Gmail crystal ball spun, and lo and behold I found myself staring at the career event of a lifetime — “FBI Information Session, TONIGHT @ 6 PM!” In the heat of the moment, I truly felt that Fate was beckoning me to take this epic journey to EC/Career Services. In a sense. Really, I shamelessly beckoned myself.

But, on a rainy Wednesday night, I descended the stairs of the Career Services inferno and quietly slipped my way into the conference room. After positioning myself next to the extremely active radiator, I first began to take in my surroundings. Up at the front, standing ominously by the slide projector, were three middle-aged women, all wearing stately black suits. With my acute deductive skills, I deduced that these were the recruiters from the FBI, and presumably another attempt by our wonderful government to downplay the image of male-dominated workplaces — truly admirable.

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Columbia-sponsored high school, created as Manhattanville quid pro quo, evicted, now homeless: ironic?

CU formally apologizes to Minutemen: reactions predictable

Barnard career services better than Columbia’s…unless you want to be a bartender

Speaking of which: bars crack down on legal IDs, but hire illegal bouncers

Revelation of the day: “in certain cases drug use destroys lives, but in a lot of cases they help out a whole bunch”

Columbia’s alphabet soup of schools: doomed to “sad and paradoxical reality” of awkward coexistence – forever. Which, according to this, is a good thing. We think.

Young, fresh faces in suits have been a frequent sight on campus recently, as seniors scuttle around to consulting presentations and finance interviews. This afternoon, they all converged on Roone Arledge for the annual Career Fair, a room full of smiling representatives from companies with names like Ameritrade and the Analysis Group. Feeling contentedly underdressed, Bwog wandered the aisles, cadging the odd clicky pen and glossy brochure. UBS has branded chocolates!

A few more tidbits after the jump. (more…)

No caption necessary.

See it full-size.

Bwog, which rejects value judgments of all kinds, was nevertheless amused to catch sight of a man selling water for $1 in Union Square. Wearing a Columbia T-shirt.

Don’t say Columbia Career Services never gave you anything…