By: Camila Torres '26 and Christina O'Keefe '25
High schoolers struggle with deciding what path they want pursue. Four years is quite time restricting, especially for deciphering your future. The good news is that there are endless possibilities and career choices available. There are a plethora of jobs that you’ve probably never even heard of. High schoolers have to figure out what it is that they are truly passionate about in order to follow a fulfilling career path.
Each year, Notre Dame hosts an annual career fair where ND students are able to walk around and speak with people from all different professions. Here, ND students are sparked with passion and confidence for their journeys after graduation. This year, the professionals talked about their day-to-day work lives, education, starting salaries, and what inspired them to choose their career paths. Most importantly, they were able to give personal experiences and advice. This advice eased the stress that comes with deciding your future path.
Something that can seem very daunting when choosing a career is making sure that you pick a profession that you won’t get bored of in years to come. In an interview with Stacy Mark, an American Express Marketing Consultant, she talks about how she has worked for American Express for 25 years and that within the company you can change your job every two years. Stacy Mark has learned many different skills working from client management to now working as the director of marketing. As a marketing consultant, you need skills like creativity and adaptability. Fortunately, much like Ms. Mark’s job, there are so many different directions that you can take with a profession after getting your degree and honing all the skills that you bring with you. Getting bored of one job does not have to be a problem since you can take so many paths within one career.
In another interview, Loren Cooper, a finance consultant, spoke about all the
highlights of her career. Ms. Cooper described how rewarding a career that you enjoy can be and how your job doesn’t only have to be all about work. She has gone on amazing work trips to places such as Israel and trips all around the country while working on acquisitions, and buying companies to integrate them. Ms. Cooper’s biggest highlight was the opportunity to go with her work to the NCAA March Madness Final Four and getting to meet all kinds of great people throughout her years as a finance consultant. To get to the point in her career now, Ms. Cooper has had to work hard starting in public accounting after getting her CPA license and working up from there. Her experiences truly shows how rewarding a career can be if you are passionate about what you do.
For more bold and unique careers, it can often be difficult to get people to believe in you. As a creative director of design, Donna Marfino, recalls her beginnings in an interview. Ms. Marfino has her “dream job” designing pieces for companies like Lisa Todd and Kaufman Franco, but her career started from a bold and daring decision going against what most people advised her to do. While Ms. Marfino was set on becoming a fashion designer, people warned her about the difficulties in becoming successful in that industry. Most of the time you hear about traditional professions like medicine, law or engineering, but Ms. Marfino had a dream and she was set on it. She now talks about how rewarding it has been sticking with what she knew she wanted to do from the start. Ms. Marfino's story shows how you can become successful from doing what you are passionate about. The most rewarding part of following your passion is seeing your own dreams come true. She’s an example of how, if you have a dream, no matter what people say, you should never let go of it.
Beyond marketing, finance, and fashion, there are endless possibilities for future occupations. Overall, the most important lesson I have taken from this fair is to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself. Talking to people is crucial for realizing what your profession might be. You can learn from personal experiences or from advice that people like Stacy Mark, Loren Cooper, and
Donna Marfino give. There were many different careers at the ND career fair, and each person had their own passion, highlights, challenges, and lessons learned.
Photos Courtesy of Camila Torres '26 and Christina O'Keefe '25
Edited by: Catherine Polatidis '26 and Ms. Brilliant
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