Posted: 7/21/2011 2:46:53 PM EDT
| Went to the big job fair today in the Macon area. Touted as having 80 companies there- Bring plenty of resumes and bring your ID's and come ready to work that day. Well I get there with 10 copies of my resume only to be let down. Out of about 80 companies- there were around 20 at most- none with openings in my area. Most of the jobs listed were even out of state. They had staffing agencies every where taking apps and even several colleges for the back to schoolers. But why have a job fair in a central area with no openings or even none available in the state your holding it in ? What a let down and a waste of time. anybody ever have any luck with a job fair ? or was it just this one that was bad ? |
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Majority of the job fairs Ive been to are in college as each college holds their own career fair. Mine (UWG) were always a pretty good turn out. Me double majoring in accounting and finance, I do know they also had accounting fairs and accounting interview days. Not sure about other majors. Of course college brand holds lots of weight so GA state, UGA, southern, KSU, etc had some amazing job fairs. I was able to get into KSU's accounting career fair in Sept. and saw a lot of recruiters/HR I knew previously and made some awesome new contacts. After a busy season with a huge atl cpa firm, I kept in contact with a few prospects and with continuous networking, 5 interviews, and 11 days of benefits negotiating, I landed in a nationwide firm I met at the KSU fair.
I was up to date with which job fairs were good and being president of the accounting club and the finance club, Id organize a shuttle to take students from the college to these fairs. Always had a great time. Now there are some job fairs that are complete jokes, assuming you went to one of them. They arent all like that. The reason why you saw companies there but not hiring was to check out the market and its prospects. Back in '09 when it was rough, we had a career fair and nobody was hiring. They took resumes and was just feeling it out until the market got better. I took it as a way to network and keep me on their radar. Another reason why companies go out to these fairs is to put their name out there and to answer any questions you couldnt find by checking out their website. |