Selling your soul or saving the world? That was the question faced by the approximately 1,000 students who attended Tuesday's Career and Summer Opportunities Fair.
Hundreds of Blue Devils dressed to impress the 109 government agencies, nonprofits, consulting and financial firms that set up shop in the Bryan Center. Other students chose to don casual attire and to browse different civic engagement opportunities.
Names like Bain and Company, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan could be seen drawing in large lines of students, all waiting eagerly for their chance to talk to a representative and hand in their resume.
"Schmoozing is helpful," said David Tung, a junior only looking for banking internships. "A lot of banking is about making a personal connection. I want to focus on it because it's really competitive this year with the job market."
Other students were on the fence between advancing their careers and having an alternative summer experience.
"I'm kind of half-and-half," junior Young-In Song said. "I'm not sure if I want an internship or a summer engagement like DukeEngage, but I'm a junior so I'm a little bit worried about my career."
Sarah Trent, assistant director of programs at the Duke Center for Civic Engagement and DukeEngage, said students are excited about the program because it offers a unique experience.
"We hope students will develop their professional interest, develop their academic interest, but most importantly develop an interest in civic engagement," she said.
Despite the range of students and experience levels at the fair, many students said employers were only interested in recruiting junior and senior candidates.
"I just came from Goldman," sophomore Dan Certner said. "There's a huge line I had to wait in and it wasn't very informative when I got there. As a sophomore, they don't really care about me."
But a group of senior engineering students said they were being overlooked and that engineering recruiters were primarily focusing on underclassmen.
"Most engineering companies here have already rejected Duke seniors," senior Michael Schaper said. "But a lot of us have found offers from consulting firms."
Yolander Albert, associate director of the Career Center, said she noticed the younger students are a little more nervous than the upperclassmen at the fair. But she noted that the same resources are provided for everyone.
"Those searching for an opportunity find value in this event," she added.
For their part, some employers found students' proactivity in securing jobs and internships particularly impressive. Oliver Grace, a representative from Goldman Sachs, was on the verge of losing his voice from speaking to so many interested students.
"[Duke is] one of Goldman's target schools," he said. "I think we've had a lot of positive results from interns we've had from Duke."
Other employers used the fair to better develop and build their relationship with the University and its students.
"What we're trying to do is build core schools in our recruiting base," said Li-Yin Kok, a representative for Macy's. "That way we build a relationship with six or seven schools who will form the majority of where we pull our interns."
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