Christina Laughery is my first guest blogger http://www.linkedin.com/in/christinalaughery. She had a frustrating experience at yesterday's Job Expo in West Des Moines.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The West Des Moines Development Corporation and the Iowa Workforce Development Center held a Job Expo on Thursday at the Sheraton in West Des Moines. With about 40 employers in attendance you'd think it would be well worth any job seeker's time. What a great opportunity to network and meet face-to-face with some of the employers on the endless list of companies I've submitted my resume to over the last few months! Right? Wrong. That's not quite how it works. If I hadn't had an interview pre-arranged with one of the participating employers, I wouldn't even have considered going. The experience I had at the last job fair changed my view of job fairs forever.
A few weeks ago I got all dressed up in my best (and only) suit, printed out several copies of my resume on nice, pretty executive paper, and headed to the job fair at the Polk County Convention Complex with the hopes of at least walking away with a couple good leads. After making a lap around the room, being careful to avoid all the pushy recruiters trying to convince me I'm destined for a career in sales (which, after learning the hard way, I now know that I am definitely NOT), I decided to be brave and wait in line to talk to a few of the employers at the top of my list. Instead of a quick little interview where I could convince the employer how wonderful I am and that they should hire me, I was handed a sheet of paper listing their open positions and was told to submit my resume online. I tried even harder, asking if I could give them my resume, only to be told that they couldn't take resumes in person, only online. WHAT? What's the point of the job fair then? They didn't even really ask my name or introduce themselves...their only words were "Go to our web site". Wow, thanks. What a waste of time...and panty hose.
Now, I will be honest and tell you that I did run into a job seeker at the job fair today who had managed to secure two interviews for customer service positions, so obviously it wasn't a waste of time for her. I don't know if this is because of the type of position she was looking for or if the companies she talked with were different, but her experience was obviously completely different from mine, which is great for her. I just wish I had known about the "we can't accept resumes in person" rule before I wasted hours of my day and missed dancing with Ellen.
I don't know about you, but I will definitely not be attending another job fair anytime soon...unless I have a pre-arranged interview or am really bored and desperate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have to say that I feel 100% the same way. I have not had positive experiences at job fairs. But there are people out there who have, so maybe those are the people they serve. What have your experiences been at job fairs?
I'd also like to take this time to invite anyone who is unemployed and who would like to guest blog to contact me via email at suzanne_hull@hotmail.com with their ideas.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
This sounds exactly like the frustration my husband ran into at the same place Christina went. Whenever I hear about a job fair since then I wonder if it would be different and if he should try again. Now I think I know the answer...
ReplyDeleteI was at the same job fair on Thursday and I must say at first my frustration was very similar.
ReplyDeleteHowever after making a couple contacts outside of the job fair and reflecting on my actual experience there I have a slightly different veiw.
First of all the no resume thing, yes I talked to the same recruiter (actually I talked to a young man who identified himself as an intern and have no idea if the recruiter he was with would have said the same thing) but he was the only one in the room I talked to that hit me with that.
Actually I talked to several who took my resume and one who took it enthusiastically and promised to shop it around the office to see if he could use me.
He said call him back in a week and he would tell me honestly if he had a place for me.
Was that a job offer no but after talking to soo many answering machines it almost seemed like one.
I also have to say that I have reached the conclusion that applying on line by itself is a surefire path to disappointment.
From here on in I want the face to face time as much as I can.
I just don't think you get as much attention on line as you do if you even walk in and ask for an application and get told it's on line!
Just my thought after the experiences Iv'e had so far.
Was the job fair a waste of time, I guess each of us has to answer that ourselves but as for me no it wasn't a waste of time.
It at least got me out of the house!
Thank you both for your comments. Looks like our hypothesis has been semi-confirmed - everyone has a different experience at job fairs. It just seems that as a "job fair", job-seekers should be getting so much more out of them than what we are...there should be no doubt as to their worth...
ReplyDeleteFirst, can someone who knows address the "no resume" thing. Why wouldn't a company take resumes?
Second, was the job fair really worth it to you having met the one recruiter who actually took your resume and said they would try to help you. Was your time well spent? You're right, it wasn't a job offer, but did you have the opportunity to make an impression on this person, enough of one so that he's really going to help you get a job?
You hit the nail on the head with your understanding of the importance of face-to-face interaction; but you rarely come close to that at a job fair. I think time is better spent networking - with anyone. The more people who know you and what you can/want to do, the better. Get together a team of people (they can be family and friends) who will market you to everyone they know. A wise consultant told me recently, "if you own your own business, you've got to spend 8 hours out of a 40 hour work week marketing". I challenge all the unemployed to incorporate this mentality into their job search. AT LEAST 20% of your time should be spent away from your computer networking (not at job fairs :)). Good things will come of this, I'm sure...
I actually found my current job, which ends June 17th (I was let go from Principal today) through a job fair in Minneapolis where I attended college. From there they had told me that I should apply online for any non-sales jobs. It actually worked for me, so who knows...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I'm Corey and will be unemployed in a couple of weeks.
Nice to meet you, Corey. Sorry to hear that you'll be joining the Unemployed in Des Moines Club :(
ReplyDelete