The first time I attended a career fair was a lot like my first college search. Although reluctant, I was convinced that I needed to do it, I really wanted to do it, and I also had no idea how to best prepare. I was filled with naïve optimism that was met with disheartening frustration. I had a resume and a suit to go with my liberal arts education and even a little research on the companies present. But I was missing an elevator pitch or even the faintest concept of such a thing. I also lacked a specialty and had not yet identified my calling. All I had been able to do was eliminate options to which I did not want to dedicate one half of my waking life.
My first time was a university career fair. The attendees specified which type of degree they sought in candidates. Of those few companies willing to consider a liberal arts degree, I wandered from booth to booth feeling like the nervous one at the party whose friends still had not shown up yet. I walked up to each of these booths, attempted the obligatory, tiresome small talk and feigned interest in companies offering careers that I most likely would not enjoy, all while trying to figure out how to network to gain an advantage in my professional career search and understand why these all so important networking events are all so important. Years later I am finally realizing the true value of these events. The value lies in the odds, and like the lottery, the odds vary from event to event, but one thing remains constant: your odds of hitting are slim; your odds of hitting big are virtually non-existent.
I did not draw this conclusion from a single limited life event. I recently relocated to one of the top five largest U.S. cities and have been actively searching for a job for about two months. In that time I have attended six job fairs. I have also sought positions that are consistent with my Meyers- Briggs personality and aptitude tests and some that are only consistent with my experience. I have tweaked or rewrote my resume countless times, adjusted my cover letter, resume and elevator pitch according to discussion with and advice from a university career counselor, and have reached out to my domestic partner and a former colleague in order to get a leg up applying for positions at their companies. I have even called and emailed the directors of a research project that I am interested in to get my resume looked at by their recruiter. At this point in my life I feel like I have a solid job searching foundation (even if I still do not know exactly what it is I will genuinely enjoy spending half my life doing) and am qualified to generalize about job fairs.
Job fairs open to the general public, vis, not held exclusively for college/university students, that are not industry focused, eg., engineering, nursing, industrial job fairs, etc., are, as mentioned previously, similar to a lottery. Sales and call center positions and jobs requiring little or no education or experience are disproportionately represented at these events, the worst of which have included commission only positions and door-to-door sales positions. Often, companies do not show, positions and/or companies are not posted beforehand or sometimes not even the event day. The most recent event was billed as a “mega” job fair co-sponsored by a major job board and offered positions from four different industries. The venue space was several thousand square feet and charged $10 for parking. I thought, “Awesome! This is the big career event I have been practicing for by attending all those dead end, rinky-dink job fairs loaded with sales positions.” This mega job fair solidified my ambivalence for these events into a pure skepticism. The only thing mega about it was the mega waist of space and the mega misleading marketing. Only about 15% of the entire available space in the convention hall was set up with employers. The rest was partitioned off, set up for a basic job search seminars, or completely empty space. Three of the four industries advertised were represented by less than ten employers and one of those was represented by less than four employers.
This event was like the mega-millions jackpot lottery event of job fairs: Lots of hype followed by just as much disappointment. Sure, a couple might hit big, but most have nothing to show for their $10 lottery ticket and a few might go home with a small taste of a monstrous pie. I am in this last category. I applied for two positions that I do not really want and was able to follow-up with a recruiter whose employer had been blowing me off.
The more I reflect on my job and career search the more and more it compares to gambling in general. How many of us are really ever satisfied with our position, or salary, or hours, or boss? And although I do not think career search addiction could be possible, such addiction might be the best way for many of us to ever find satisfaction for that half of our waking lives. I will likely be chasing the career dragon for much of my foreseeable future.
Related articles
- How to Choose a New Career (blog.penelopetrunk.com)
Fringe Musings 