Job fairs….are they worth going to?

I was wondering if any one has had any success attending job fairs? If so, I would love to hear your experiences and any advice...

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TomkoTech

Depends on the job fair. But I would say in most cases yes it is. Especially school job fairs. Worst case scenario you make some good networking connections. They usually send the people who do the hiring. So you get an in person "informal" interview so to speak with the people who would be reviewing your resume for actual interviews. I've had many interviews set up because of interactions at job fairs.

N2IT

I think so especially if they are niche.

ottoscav

In my experience, they throw your resume in a stack on the table and tell you to look online for job openings and apply for one of them. After having that experience three times in a row, I stopped going. YMMV.

Tremie24

Depends, I've been to a few that sucked.

Legacy User

I've been to the Dice.com job fair. Its mainly 50 people waiting online to talk to a person. I went when I was fresh out of tech school since they sent me. At the time it was rather intimidating for a newbie like me. I got two leads which led to emailed exchanges and a few phone calls but nothing resulted from it.

TomkoTech

The purpose of the job fair is for you to impress the people you are talking to. If you don't spend any time talking with the reps that are there and just walk up and hand them a resume then yea, it's going to get tossed in a stack. But if you take 10-15 minutes and make a connection with their people I will almost 100% assure you that you will get an interview.

If you show up 30 minutes before the job fair is over and expect to just hand them your resume and walk away, you aren't being realistic.

ottoscav

TomkoTech wrote: »

The purpose of the job fair is for you to impress the people you are talking to. If you don't spend any time talking with the reps that are there and just walk up and hand them a resume then yea, it's going to get tossed in a stack. But if you take 10-15 minutes and make a connection with their people I will almost 100% assure you that you will get an interview.

If you show up 30 minutes before the job fair is over and expect to just hand them your resume and walk away, you aren't being realistic.

Not to be argumentative - but I did not have that attitude at the job fair. I went each time dressed to impress, resume polished and ready to talk and chat it up. Every single table I approached (and waited in line for) ended up with me introducing myself, asking the pertinent questions, making eye contact....all that crap. After a few moments, the only responses I got to my questions from my new "connections" were: "I don't know," "Check our website," "Apply online," or the famous "We're just collecting resume's for future positions." I also tried online job fairs and to my surprise had the same exact experience. Virtual recruiters asking me if I checked their online job openings and instructions on how to apply online for consideration. Anyway...enough ranting and again, I'm sure they're all not the same.

mokaiba

ottoscav wrote: »

In my experience, they throw your resume in a stack on the table and tell you to look online for job openings and apply for one of them. After having that experience three times in a row, I stopped going. YMMV.

That and out of 40 tables, 20 of them are colleges wanting you to go to school....its a "job" fair...

TomkoTech

I've been to 8 job fairs over the passed 4 or 5 years. All of which were at my school or a local university and set up specifically for IT related jobs. Maybe that's the difference. I haven't gone to general job fairs at hotels or anything like that.

stryder144

I think they are worth it if only because it gets your face out there. Most people are visually oriented, so seeing your face, chatting them up, etc is much more useful than just sending in a resume or filling out a web application. That is the benefit, by the way, of putting a good picture of you on Linkedin. I have been to a few and I received some great leads and two job offers. So, as stated, the mileage may vary.

teancum0

I enjoyed the last job fair I went to. In fact it was the first one I've ever been to. Basically I found the biggest part for me was being able to differentiate my self from all the students looking for internships. I basically would hand them a resume and start naming things I was interested in working with that reflected my experience. This got me a few good conversations and few call backs. None of the offers were better then what I all ready am working though.

FloOz

I went to every job fair I could while I was still in school. Even if I wasn't interested in a company it was still a great way to meet new people.

Magmadragoon

It really depends on the job fair you go to. The last IT job fair I went to was actual for graphic designers and computer programers. the crowd was mostly college students looking for internship but I separate myself from the crowd because there was actual companies in need of jobs for IT. This proved to be helpful since I met people on a face to face level instead of apply to online job postings on Monster, CareerBuilder, and Craigslist then finding out a recruiter put that listing up. In my case, it actually helped me.