OAKLAND, Calif.—Bleary-eyed students and alumni gathered early Saturday morning in the sun-drenched Lokey School of Business building. They scanned for familiar faces and gathered courage. Name tags on their chests, clutching cups of complimentary coffee, they made awkward introductions and hoped for the best.
It was a networking event like any other, fraught with the pressure to present your best self and make new connections. But this one was unique: a daylong career conference, sponsored by Mills College at Northeastern University, aiming to demystify the process of finding your dream job with concrete tools and a little soul searching.
Hosted by Northeastern’s Career Design Team, the event was called the “NUCareer Connect Conference: Reflect, Explore, Connect.”
The repetition of “connect” in the title was not by accident.
“The hardest…
