For 48 hours last week Adam House became the focus of much excitement, anticipation, and controversy. In excess of one hundred companies, firms, corporations and conglomerates descended for their annual harvest of the cream of the Edinburgh student crop, each one trying to out-shout the others in a manic bid to promote their brand new grad scheme or sponsored placement. Eager undergraduates flocked through the big wooden doors, each one returning with a goody bag full of branded mugs, key rings, and even a stress ball. Student flats everywhere hummed to the chatter of huge starting salaries, placements in Dubai or exciting prospects as a young banker.

As a final-year student, I entered the battle with particular vigour – the knowledge that I was potentially picking how I spent my whole life lying heavily on my mind. As an ambitious, liberal-minded and possibly very naïve young man, my sights were set on a career that would help make the world a better place. Not, I might add, necessarily in a way that would put my name down in the history books – I am not Mother Theresa.

Instead, I wanted a steady job that would result in a few people having to put up with a little less hardship in their lives. I wanted to design wind turbines to combat rising sea levels. I wanted to reform the education system to ensure young adults lead a healthier lifestyle.  I wanted to bring the internet to Africa.

I spent my afternoon wandering among the colourful advertising banners of innumerate banking firms, business super-corporations, law firms and oil companies. All around me, young men and women were collecting graduate brochures in exchange for thermos flasks and cheap sports watches.  I watched aghast as students were cheaply bribed and great hordes of talented individuals were shepherded into finance and big business.

The extent to which pure capitalism dominated the careers fair was overwhelming. Where were the big socially responsible companies, such as Google or Edison?  Where were the international charities, such as Oxfam or RedR? Where were the renewable energy companies, long heralded as the industry of the future? Instead we got BAE systems and Shell – two of the most morally dubious corporations on the planet. I witnessed two engineering students - who were both supposedly passionate about the offshore wind industry - signing up to manufacture guns and ammunition. I don’t think it takes a saint to make a moral judgement about that decision. At least Majestic Wine was there to offer some light relief to the brainwashing.

All this takes place in the context of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement. All across the globe, tens of thousands of men and women are protesting against the immense greed perpetrated by the same corporations that were signing up new graduates in our university last week. Their anger is directed at the finance companies that have plunged the world into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and rightly so – our generation will have a very tough time pursuing prestigious careers. And yet the message does not seem to have been heard – the queues of bright young students at the stalls of Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and BlackRock tell their own story. It is a story of boundless greed and a disdain for society. But mostly it is a sad tale of wasted potential.

I understand that the banking sector is a strong pillar of the UK economy. I understand that big business is necessary to provide us with many of the opportunities and amenities that we enjoy every day. But how satisfying will it really be to have spent your life maximising profit margins and closing those big deals? Too many graduates simply fall into traditional jobs working in the City, so I challenge every one of you: send off at least one job application to an organisation that actually makes life better. Demand a more balanced careers fair, with more charities and social enterprises. And most importantly, continue to ask yourself the question – am I simply trying to accumulate as much money as I can, or am I spending my life doing something actually meaningful?