How do I make the best of the day?

There they are: 60-plus employers in Memorial Hall, offering you a unique opportunity to sample various careers in a smorgasbord of business and non-profit settings.

All of the participants at this year's Office of Career Services forum are interested in hiring Harvard graduates. Most have hired Harvard grads before and have been pleased with their contributions.

So what's the best way to approach the forum? Here are some ideas:

*Explore the range of entry level jobs across several industries. Choose five different fields to sample--say, advertising, consulting, insurance, retailing and public service.

*Compare similar jobs in different fields: brand management at Proctor & Gamble, account management at Ogilvy & Mather.

*Contrast different companies within one field: Peat Marwick & Mitchell or Price Waterhouse in accounting; Bowles vs. Ogilvy & Mather in advertising.

*Discover the range of jobs within one organization: IBM, Proctor & Gamble, Merrill Lynch.

*Delineate several entry points within a field like insurance, banking, communications, and assess the differences between companies that have management training programs as entry points and those that do not.

*Find various companies within a field--financial services--for example, that offer you a chance to learn a specific skill like trading. Examples are commodities firms, investment banks and commercial banks.

*Generate a list of companies within a general functional area--marketing, for example--that offers you a chance to learn particular skills: data analysis, writing, sales, etc.

*Compare training programs within an industry: how is Banker's Trust's program different from Morgan Guaranty Trust's in commercial banking?

*Conduct a fact-finding mission to uncover information about summer jobs, internships in organizations that interest you, or other possible entry points into the companies for which you'd like to work.

These are just a few ideas for ways to optimize the Career Forum as a resource for information about careers and jobs. You don't have to plan a strategy. Indeed, feel free to browse the various exhibits. Stop and chat with representatives of companies that appeal to you. Look into a field or occupation that you assume is not for you--you may be surprised to learn how multi-faceted you are.

Many of the companies participating in the Career Forum will be interviewing on campus in the Spring as part of OCS's On-Campus Recruiting Program. To learn about the recruiting program and how to take advantage of recruiting opportunities, come to one of our two meetings. They're on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 4-5, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Science Center.