Fun fact: Last month I was laid off from my job at a startup, along with about half the company. Now, I’ve been sending out resumes and interviewing, and although I’ve never been to a career fair before, I figured I might as well go just in case. Why not, right? Well, I’ll tell you why not.
The thing ran from 11 AM to 3 PM, and I got there around 10:45 only to see a very long line forming. The line stretched longer and longer leading up to 11; at least 100 people were there when it opened.
As we slowly shuffled up to the registration table, I came to the realization that there were a grand total of four companies at this so-called “career fair”. FOUR. In the e-mail about the event, they had a list of companies but I thought it was a representative sample—not the entire list.
Isn’t there some agreed-upon or understood minimum number of participating companies for these things? When the entire career fair could fit inside a hotel room, as opposed to a ballroom, I think it’s time to call it quits.
The utterly depressing thing is that almost every candidate there was a middle-aged man in a suit. These are guys that have families to feed, all competing over what amounts to scraps… the desperation was pretty palpable.
Anyway, I just left.