Why job fairs are a waste of time

For instance, many colleges and universities hold career fairs for their students. The events give employers the chance to recruit employees who are educated in specific subject areas.

The purpose of the Job Fair is to allow organizations to meet potential employees in an informal setting. The Job Fair also gives job seekers the opportunity to learn more about potential employers and the opportunities available. The focus is on sharing information between organizations and job seekers. In my opinion, way better than corporate websites that tend to do alot of pre-screening before even letting a recruiter see your resume.

This is the main reason why people should attend a college career fair. It offers you a chance to present yourself to potential employers. I have encountered two kinds of Job Fairs. The first one where companies are there taking resumes and telling people to apply online when they get home. In the last few years, many of these have been dominated by colleges and universities farming for new students, and agencies gathering resumes.

The second job fair was conducted inside an actual companies offices, where they were really hiring and interviewing people to fill positions that day.

Recently, here in Ottawa, something that appears to have come across the Atlantic from Europe is the Startup Career Fair. Last years event consisted of organized open houses at various startup firms in the region. Participants registered on Eventbrite to lock in their interest, and buses transported folks to the companies they wished to visit. They were greeted at the door, given a tour and then presented with the opportunity to make their pitch to the hiring managers.

The various startup firms had previously posted their openings and interests for folks to be able to research them. I did not participate, but was told that it went very well. I have been told that the event was successful and will be held again in From what I believe I understand, the Startup event is not simply about hiring talent.

Richard: Check my story about Tandem Computers elsewhere on this thread. We used to call them cocktail parties Ah, Tandem, I recall them well. Anything could fail and they would keep on processing. Their code name for their product was Stratus. A great deal of their magic was done in software, the approach that Microsoft took with Windows NT.

At Digital Equipment Corporation, our Fault Tolerant architecture was based on hardware, with a really small software shim. All current applications becameFault Tolerant simply by running on our systems, no special coding required. The code name for our systems was Cirrus, cause everyone knows, Cirrus clouds are higher than Stratus clouds.

I saw the same news item. Career Talk with my buddy Dr. Dawn Graham: Tune in! I thought Massachusetts was the first state to ban asking for salary history. That would put Philly behind many Massachusetts cities. The next step would be for employers to publish their salary range in their job posting.

Employee can not be punished for sharing personally salary information 3. The new law is equal pay for comparable work which is more stringent measure and puts MA more in line with Canada policy. Boston companies have been asked to voluntarily share their compensation data for the city to view in aggregate. Most comoanies should be doing their own pay audit to ensure they are truly compliant.

To support this initiate, free salary negotiation workshops for women are being offered all over Boston. They share salary information openly and they have vast networks. Beyond the law, this group is holding HR to a higher standard everywhere. I love them for it.

Thank you. I was recently on the way to an informational interview when I stopped at a job fair I had seen listed in the area. I had been encouraged by a speaker that talked about hidden networking opportunities. He agreed that the job fair is not a place to get a job, but better served to network with other attendees and find those random opportunities.

Well, I walked in, and walked right out. There were huge lines to the largest employer, in an industry I have no passion for. The website for the event was never fully updated with Employer information. I realized they were not even interviewing anyone. I looked around the room and there were more services directed at me paying out of pocket to improve resumes, head shots, and go to school or take classes online. Job fairs tend to be cattle calls, with some exceptions, as others have noted.

Those firms pay for their booths. They do nothing for job seekers. The best thing to do at a job fair is meet people — if you can find ones worth meeting. Standing in line to deliver a resume when you can use e-mail is kinda silly! Nothing is hidden. I once traveled several hundred miles to attend a job fair in a city where I wanted to relocate. About a year later, after my move, I was doing temporary work in the HR department of a company which is a major company in town and was given the job of cleaning out a cubicle for someone who would soon be starting there.

I found where they kept all of their job fair booth items which had obviously been thrown in this vacant cubicle after their last job fair.

Karen: Sheesh. You get the prize for the hidden gem. Wow — stale, un-read resumes from years ago!! A small job fair with hardly a dozen companies, run by a bunch of churches, in a medium-size church room.

That was circa You should visit our website! And this was from an institution where I had worked six years, and had worked my way up to an assistant manager. The state-run job fair I attended shortly after my job loss circa was one of the reasons I quickly fell into clinical depression.

Parking was overflowing, and the line of job seekers literally was winding around the building. And I was there early. There must have been thousands of people pouring by a dozen companies, half of which were construction companies. Going home to my hopeful wife with nothing hopeful to report did not make this a fun day. Fifteen years ago I went to my very first — and last — job fair. I think I saw about 10 reps from companies I was interested in.

I got two calls back. One guy was trying to sell me investment services at the time I was unemployed — just keeping the lights on and food on the table was a challenge ; the other guy was a rep from one of the companies I wanted to work at — he was trying to date me.

Never, ever again. Job fairs are the biggest employment scam out there. I could write an article on this. To be fair, as a job hunter, just as useless as people have been so noting. What makes it successful from either side of the table is to apply good job hunting processes, with a twist on how to work a job fair, Which is to break it into 3 segments, before, during, after.

Do your homework. That is, one of the pay-to-play businesses that hold job fairs, a hiring company? This makes a big difference on deciding if you should attend.

As Nick noted, find out what Corporations are going to be there? If not Most likely you will waste your time. Generally in my experience the larger the corporation the closer you get to cattle call. This is where that elevator speech may actually be useful. Also view it as a networking opportunity, work the crowd to pick up ideas and leads. The best value of a job fair is afterward. And I mean this from both sides of the table. This is where the work really starts.

Look, I did the job fair thing as a job hunter and had all the negative experiences noted. I turned myself into a recruiter eventually landing as an in-house recruiter myself, working part time for a small privately owned company. As such, I started using job fairs to find people run by volunteer job hunting groups and churches, community colleges. They were FREE to the company. But armed with negative experiences as a job hunter, I was able to develop a process respectful to candidates and pragmatic for the company to best make use of job fairs.

NOTE: yes we hired people we met at the job fairs. Particularly a couple of very well run favorite ones held once or twice a year. As we got traction with this, we enlisted the hiring managers to attend…in force. This was so much faster than serially working people through the normal work day of a manager. The volunteers who ran the fairs soon learned we turned out in force as a company and they passed the word and directed people of interest to us real time.

We the booth well staffed I literally worked the floor, engaging candidates at the door, in the hall, walking around and with confidence could send them directly to a hiring manager. The managers loved it and we never had a problem getting them to show up. We collected a resume from every person we talked to.

Yes we also asked them to apply on line. I believe Follow up is a critical attribute in any kind of job. People who followed up moved to the head of the line for time and attention, often outweighing raw skillsets. We read every resume and we, mostly me, would personally get back to everyone whether they were a fit or not. So it was done on a priority basis.

Immediately to those who followed up with that application, note or call. To those who responded to our follow up to them.. All the discussion thus far has been from the attendee side. But…the door swings 2 ways. The companies do expend effort, even if only a warm body to attend a Fair. And on their side of the table get a lot of promises, seeming interest, etc. Which is OK as they are telling us they are not interested. I know many are the same people complaining no one gets back to them. So take note, from the standpoint of a company, many people are time wasters too, not just the companies.

Finally when the dust settles, I give the people that put together the job fairs feedback. How many people we talked to, interviewed, hired.

Because as I said we exclusively used either volunteer groups, non profits or community college or universities which offered free fairs. The people that put time into putting together a Fair, particularly unpaid volunteers really want to help…and no one tells them what happened.. They love the feedback…and as I noted.. I disagree with the substance and tone of your column. High quality niche career fairs can be an effective tool for both employers and candidates in their search for each other.

My company, RecruitMilitary, will produce city and base career fairs for veterans this year. Over 10, individuals gained interviews because of our fairs during As I have written on my LinkedIn blog, there are many myths about veteran career fairs.

Job seekers and employers need to conduct careful due diligence on what works for them and not make blanket dismissals of any one tool or resource. Quality matters but so too does the diligence and effort of job seeker and employer alike. I have observed that veteran job seekers need help with two primary areas of their job searches and high-quality niche career fairs are excellent at providing both. A good job fair offers both opportunities as one key part of a well-conceived and executed job search strategy.

Job seekers face enough challenges without encountering cynical opinions that dissuade them from a tactic that continues to benefit thousands of job seekers. Peter: Thanks for posting your comments.

Understandable since you work for a job fair company. As you might have seen in the comments thread, some readers have posted positive experiences with job fairs. However, the preponderance of comments reveals really lousy experiences with job fairs — including some folks who work in HR.

My tone is negative because of the record of job fairs overall. Job seekers face challenges not because of cynical opinions, as you suggest, but because useless and often counterproductive services are marketed hard to them — wasting their time and money. The purpose of this website is to educate, to provide a forum for candid discussion, and to provide a place for honest debate.

You seem to characterize all job fairs as valuable and useful without criticism. I use Ask The Headhunter to offer education, but I just get the ball rolling. Most of what members of this community learn comes from the participants themselves, who share their stories, insights, advice and experiences.

I can only comment on high-quality veteran career fairs. There are many that are not high-quality and of course even more that are not solely focused on veterans.

About a year ago, I addressed this very topic on my Linkedin column. Thanks everyone! I need to update my LinkedIn account too. Is LinkedIn an absolute must?

The operative word here is veterans. You just excluded the nonVets, and your focus group is a tiny niche. Job Fairs are a waste, just scammy business to rack up EEO points. Funny story. So I apply online for a gig I thought I was perfect for with a certain company. Two weeks later I get a canned regrets letter.

Got an invitation to apply for another, UN-advertised gig, nailed it. The university goes to great lengths to prepare their students for their job fairs, as well as having high expectations for the employers who attend. As a result, students meet people with hiring authority and frequently get internships, coops, and jobs as a direct result of the job fairs. Similar to the gentleman who commented about RecruitMilitary, students also gain networking skills, something my son desperately needs.

As someone involved in hiring, I agree with the request for someone to apply online after the job fair if they are really interested in a job. That would ease the accessibility issue for many job fair attendees. Based on the comments here, I get the feeling that some people expect an offer onsite at the job fair… that seems entirely unrealistic unless you happen to be at one of those cattle-call fairs where they need someone, anyone, tomorrow.

My takeaway from this thread: not all job fairs are alike. Employers who show up ready to interview and to do the serious work of assessing, recruiting and hiring people are to be complimented. The rest are shameful examples of carny barkers who should not be there. The idea that you should show up to be told to go apply online is absurd.

Anyone can apply online at any time. If an employer is serious about someone they meet at a fair and takes no action, something is woefully wrong. The last job fair that was worthwhile for me to attend was a single-company job fair. It was on a weekend, and instead of HR hacks, they had line managers there who would actually talk about the positions. Since what they did was somewhat unique, they were looking for quick studies for most positions, someone they could mentor and train.

Oh yeah, and sell resume and dress for success services. The most recent one I went to was a disaster. I asked the people representing the companies if they were the hiring managers for their departments, and not a single one I spoke with over 30 people held that position. It was a colossal waste of time. Instructions to job seekers registering for the event read:. Come and impress recruiters with your preparedness they really like that! So, I signed-up anticipating — based on the instructions — that this would be my opportunity to connect directly with the recruiters at these premier companies.

The morning of the fair I got up early to carefully prepare and practice my pitch, and to dress for success; only to find instead of being drawn to meat, I had instead been drawn to a steamy pile of crap jobs.

When I arrived, I was greeted by one of the cronies hired to vet candidates. I was handed a list of positions they were looking to fill. I studied the list, which included mostly low paying, high-stress, call center and collections jobs. After making a quick mental note of the situation, the first thought that crossed my mind was, is she put out by me being a straight, white person at a diversity career fair, on top of not being interested in any of their immediate need jobs?

I naturally left feeling betrayed and frustrated about the complete waste of time and energy. I might be a good candidate, I might be the best candidate. Get past the ATS no small feat 2. Get past the pennies-on-the-dollar salary 6. Have to be dog-panting enthusiastic about working there. Thank you all for your comments. I was scheduled to attend a job fair over miles from where I live.

The fair is at a University, and those few employers slated to be in attendance about 5 are very big companies that need no introduction. Something in my gut told me to cancel and spend my time instead looking for professional associations to join and filling my list of pros around town to try getting informational interviews with. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Resume Are career fairs a waste of time Reddit?

Ben Davis June 2, Are career fairs a waste of time Reddit? What do you do at a career fair? Should I go to career fair Reddit?