Are Career or Job Fairs Worth Your Time?

It depends.

Marketing guru and blogger, Seth Godin, earlier this week wrote, “Planning a career at a career fair is a little like looking for a soulmate at a singles' bar.” He thinks that employers are there to fill “average” jobs with “average” people, which he points out don’t really exist. I’m not average, are you?

A 2009 Northern Virginia job fair drew about 3,000 hopeful jobseekers, most of whom waited for hours in the rain to enter the building and talk with a handful of employers, mostly from the federal government. These agencies, it turns out, were looking to fill lower level jobs and sending people to the Web to apply. One attendee reported that the real value for her in this otherwise uncomfortable experience was the networking she did with the others standing in line.

Alison Doyle, who writes for About.com, likens career fairs to ‘“one stop shopping’ at the mall.” She concedes they “can be overwhelming with many people waiting to see the same employer, one-the-spot interviewing, noise and sometimes confusion.” But, she sees their value as providing a unique opportunity to meet one-to-one with representatives from several employers, which you can’t easily do any other way.

For a career or job fair to be a worthwhile experience, it takes advance research and preparation, a lot of energy (and willingness to stand in lines), and a winning attitude. It takes all that plus a little luck.

Checking out what employers will be there and what jobs are open ahead of time will tell you if a particular event holds some promise for you. You can’t do anything about the weather or how many other jobseekers show up. You can arrive early, though, to minimize your waiting time, and you can be prepared.
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This You Tube video by Patra Frame of Strategies for Human Resources offers helpful tips on making your job fair experience more successful.

Blast Your Resume to the Moon or Target Your Mark?

If you do what all the large job banks and resume distributors suggest, you’ll upload your resume on their sites so they can blast your resume to all the jobs in their database that fit your profile, according to information you provide. Get your resume in front of 100s or 1,000s of employers, they’ll tell you.

But, I’ve heard from recruiters themselves, as recently as this week, that they receive too many resumes that are totally inappropriate or that come with a generic cover letter. That tells them instantly that these candidates didn’t target them and they didn’t do any research about the employer or the job.

You might as well blast your resume to the moon!

When I was in a hiring position, I often received well over 100 resumes for a job in my department. Here is how I sorted them out:

Instant Trash Bin Candidates:
Resumes with generic cover letters, no cover letter at all or letters addressed to the wrong employer
Resumes with errors

The Maybe Pile:
Resumes with some potential but maybe not quite on the mark

The Yes, I Need to Read These Again Pile:
Resumes that show relevant experience and accomplishments
Resumes with cover letters that address the job description and my organization

Robo resumes are about as popular with recruiters and hiring managers as robo calls are with voters, and they are probably less productive, if they do you any good at all. My advice is: don't do it.