Another Job Fair Dud......Real Dud! (IT job, employment, apply, profit)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This time my wife went with me as she is now unemployed as well.
E-mail we got said "bring plenty of resumes...at least 20". I told my wife, "no way". Even the guy at the sign-in desk didn't act friendly at all. No "good morning", "hello".....nothing except "the job fair won't start til 11AM" At 11AM, he did give the same motivational speech I'd heard him give before.....which is basically a bunch of crap! Her and I went inside the Fair and it was just like I told her it would be.......a few (5 companies), a couple of schools (why have schools when everyone is looking for a job) and a resume service. We each took 5 resumes, but didn't give out a single one.....absolutely nothing that we do/have experience in/don't care about doing. One lady there told us that she was very disappointed. There was not one single Bank there and the Job Fair website said there would be a few and that is what she was looking for.
Anyway, just another "joke" for a Job Fair!!
I agree that job fairs are turning into a waste of time. I went to one a couple of weeks ago and it was very similar to the one you described. There were a bunch of for-profit schools, temp agencies, military outfits and resume writing services. We have a few call centers in town, and those were all very well-represented.
There were 2 companies that interested me and I gave both of them resumes. I followed up on both of them via email last week and have yet to hear anything back.
Generic career fairs are always a flop. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people show up for them. Most people go there with high hopes but walk out feeling very disappointed.
This time my wife went with me as she is now unemployed as well.
E-mail we got said "bring plenty of resumes...at least 20". I told my wife, "no way". Even the guy at the sign-in desk didn't act friendly at all. No "good morning", "hello".....nothing except "the job fair won't start til 11AM" At 11AM, he did give the same motivational speech I'd heard him give before.....which is basically a bunch of crap! Her and I went inside the Fair and it was just like I told her it would be.......a few (5 companies), a couple of schools (why have schools when everyone is looking for a job) and a resume service. We each took 5 resumes, but didn't give out a single one.....absolutely nothing that we do/have experience in/don't care about doing. One lady there told us that she was very disappointed. There was not one single Bank there and the Job Fair website said there would be a few and that is what she was looking for.
Anyway, just another "joke" for a Job Fair!!
Don't give up on them but job fairs are often a waste of time. There's a place by me that puts on job fairs about once a month, same companies everytime so if you've been there once no need to go again.
Most job fairs I've been to are 100% commission sales jobs, military, and part time jobs like school crossing guards, bus drivers for schools, etc.
Location: Moose Jaw, in between the Moose's butt and nose.
5,152 posts, read 8,528,010 times
Reputation: 2038
A shame, when at some of these job fairs, there are almost as many schools, jobs that are 100% commission, or resume services, as employers........deceptive advertising.
I was fortunate to have a great career fair associated with my school. There were always 80+ companies and you didn't have to be a student or alum to attend. I would suggest trying to see if a large university in your area has a career fair which also lets anyone attend. To really get a large career fair there needs to be a large backer that can guarantee that there will be qualified people there to fill positions.
This may not apply to fairs as small as 5 actual companies, but just because the same companies show up every time does not mean it's not worth it to go more than once. Eventually they will have new positions and having your face in their memory puts you that much further up the line.
It's really unfortunate that your experience wasn't good and a shame that so few companies showed up. If companies really want to hire people in the future, when the job market is booming, they should be out there finding the people that can fill those positions as early as possible.
I've only gone to one job fair here as my unemployment was very sort lived and i was impressed.. they hold specific job fairs for specific skills.. When i got there there was a sheet with each company and the current jobs they had posted.. lots of them. i then went to each one that i was interested in and or qualified for and spoke to the team and gave my resume.. One company actaully told me that I didn't have the skills they were needing in the area but had other opportunites they were needing to fill in other states if I was interested in moving. No schools were present and the job fair was specifically for technical and engineering skills - (huge difference in comparison to a basic "Job Fair")
Use the opportunity to NETWORK with people.. word of mouth goes a long way.. Create a business card with your name, number, and even a website that has your resume on it. There are several career networking websites that you can post your resume on. - especially if your in a technical/engineering field as many hiring managers use these sites along with word of mouth.
OP, just out of curiosity, who was this job fair sponsored by?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
