What is the Point of Job Fairs?

Job fairs have always been a let down for me. Be it on-campus while I was at school or off-campus in a city center or sports stadium. The response from recruiters has been lukewarm and the pool of job seekers that I have come across has been average to below average.

It is amazing how wonderful a platform Job fairs can be for character study. The variety of individuals that attend these events is more diverse than the number of jobs that are showcased and naturally so. In a recession such as this one, there are not as many jobs as there are job seekers.

Scanning through the crowd of candidates in a recent job fair I attended , I noted that the ones in black suits were normal,  the one person in a flowery spring outfit was probably looking for a “Petite Sophisticate” job which, by the way, had a booth at the event . But what really caught my eyes were a pair of shorts.  I would term this outrageous but what impresses a recruiter?  I know not. However, I do know that I would never wear one to any such professional event.

I won’t blame just the candidates’ lack of enthusiasm here. Some companies that had their booths set up exhibited a lack of fervor to find talent. For instance, I had researched on a company prior to attending the fair and had prepared a cover letter and resume exclusively for that company because I thought their business was in line with what I was looking for. To my chagrin, the lady at the booth gave me a card with the website address and told me to apply online. She could not as much talk to me about the current openings in her own company.

Last but not the least, even the freebies at these fairs are being cut down on due to the recession. Some booths had candies and nothing else.

 

Dear Recruiter:

What is the point of these job fairs? Where lies the fault? Are some job fairs average because they expect people wearing shorts, lacking professionalism and showing no interest to show up? Or, are the people slack because they expect the recruiting firms in such job fairs to show disinterest?Or, have I just been attending the wrong job fairs? I would not rule out the last one before I have tried out a few more such events. Or, could you please take two minutes of your time to answer this question for me?

Before I wrap up, let me tell you what I took away from this job fair:

1. I got to know the name of one recruiter who showed interest in my resume. This is great – knowing one recruiter in an economic downturn is equivalent to knowing 20 in a Bull market! Just a guesstimate.
2. I realized I would never wear a pair of shorts to a job fair. Not that the thought ever occurred to me.

 A Job fair may not always get you a job or land you an interview but it is an enriching experience by itself. And lessons , dear recruiter, are the most important part of our lives.  Remember the “Lessons Learned” session in the powerpoint presentation during the post-mortem of that important client project?

Thank you for your time and consideration, Ms/Mr.Recruiter. I look forward to a positive response from your team in the form of an offer letter!

Sincerely

Kavitha Shankaranarayanan A.K.A Kavitha Shankar