This summer, thousands of freshmen will journey to the 40 Acres for freshman orientation and begin their lives as Longhorns.
Somewhere in between discovering Kerbey Queso and making out with a total stranger at a frat party, these new Longhorns will be invited to a barbecue dinner followed by an organization fair. At the fair, these students — former class presidents, “most likely to succeed”s and “freshmen by year but sophomore by credits’” — will carefully analyze every club. They will interrogate each representative in order to decide what organization is the best one to join. Unfortunately, when choosing a group, many students will only question one criterion: “Will this look good on my resume?”
While resume-bolstering is a natural inclination for students at an elite school like UT, and I admit I was once guilty of it too, it is not the standard one should use in picking an organization. Freshmen should engage in activities they are interested in and passionate about, not those which exist for the sole purpose of allowing participants to say, “I was in …” during a job interview five years from now.
To start building resumes, my friends and I immediately became heavily involved in several organizations our first day here. This approach had logistical and emotional consequences; it was extremely difficult to balance membership in multiple organizations. After all, I was just a few months out of high school and had little experience managing a schedule.
I was involved in a group in which I was expected to attend leadership meetings on Mondays, committee meetings on Tuesdays, general membership meetings on Wednesdays and other events throughout the week and on weekends. This type of time commitment is not uncommon, nor innately negative — it is only damaging when you are not passionate about the organization. If a person is only committed to a group because it looks good on paper, then spending free time in organizational meetings suddenly becomes as cumbersome as work and class.
Additionally, being a part of many organizations for the sole purpose of building my resume was very emotionally taxing. Heavy involvement in a group exposes many freshmen to real responsibilities for the first time. That’s not to say anyone should shy away from responsibility, but new students need to be cognizant of what they are capable of handling their first semesters here.
When she was a freshman, a friend of mine volunteered to organize a major event for a political organization she was involved in. Due to her lack of experience, she neglected to compare quotes from caterers, costing the organization around $100. She also failed to publicize the event properly, so it was poorly attended. After weeks of stress, my friend was blamed for the event’s failure. She didn’t do a bad job; she simply should never have been put in charge of such a big project.
It isn’t rare, especially in smaller organizations, for new members to be entrusted with managing funds and organizing events. While these responsibilities can be exciting and intriguing, they can also cause levels of stress to which new students are unaccustomed.
When a student is not passionate about a group, his or her motivation to complete the tasks the group assigns diminishes. Then the student either spends his or her free time unhappily working toward goals he or she doesn’t care about or doesn’t fulfill the responsibilities and the whole group suffers.
Spending personal time on activities solely to build a resume causes one to miss out on the crux of college life: personal enrichment. There is a myriad of low-stress recreational groups at UT that cater to various interests. The Kite Flying Society will not lead to an internship at Goldman Sachs, but if you would rather spend time flying kites than discussing economic trends in Southeast Asia, the world of high finance probably isn’t for you anyway. If you are passionate about the purpose of the organization, you will be more devoted to it and work harder than the members who are just there to pad their resumes but would much rather be flying kites.
Ultimately, your resume will be fine. If you join an organization because you care about it, then your resume will set you up for a career in something you enjoy. Regardless of what you participate in your first year here, you are still attending one of the most respected and prestigious universities in the world. Freshmen have four years to learn responsibility, become leaders on campus and build a resume. There is no reason to do it all the first semester or not have fun in the process.
Luippold is a government and journalism junior.
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