Good question.

Tim asked a good question in his comment on my last post: whether it's difficult to be hands-off at this point in the week, and whether I feel like I don't really have a role in our travels. I thought I'd address it in the ten or so minutes before we go to dinner.

In short, the answer to both is, "Not really." Now that the week is closing out, college fairs only take up about two hours of the day. For those two hours, while I let the new reps man the table on their own, I get that coveted "me" time. I can answer emails from work and take care of my other tasks, or just spend some quiet time browsing the web.

I feel like I've done my job this week. At first, I did most of the talking at the fairs, and would listen to their conversations with families to determine where they needed some assistance. I talked about conversation techniques, questions to ask to keep them at the table longer, ways to connect with them, and demonstrated a number of them. After the first fair, I let them take more of a center stage role, eventually fading into the background and just jumping in when they asked. I feel they have a very good grasp of what to do and say, and now they need time to hone their skills without being self-conscious. And let's face it: this is not rocket science. Most of the time these kids won't remember anything you say in the two minutes you get with them. They will, however, remember a smiling face who expressed genuine interest in them, which is what I hope I've instilled during this training week.