Career Fairs: May I Have a Mug, Sir?

http://www.atalasoft.com/cs/blogs/office/archive/2011/02/10/career-fairs-may-i-have-a-mug-sir.aspx

by ggualberto • 15 years ago

63 24 15 years ago

atalasoft.com

tastybites• 15 years ago

Overall, everyone we met yesterday was friendly, polite, and did all the right things.

... this entire blog post was about how people were doing the wrong things.

xteemarie3• 15 years ago

The post is about the rare instances-- the turn-offs. Perhaps I should say "almost everyone."

ben1040• 15 years ago

Hi, my name is Milford Pickles. I am a PhD candidate writing my thesis on blahblahblahblah....

I've seen this, and I've seen it taken a step further where they walked down every point of experience on their resume telling me why they thought that particular course in school or work stint would make them be a good fit at my organization.

I much rather that the introduction is kept to, "I'm Bob, I'm a graduating computer science major and I'm interested in blahblah, what do you guys do?" because that turns into a mutually beneficial back-and-forth conversation very quickly.

I do wonder if this is a cultural thing, though, and just an honest go at expressing interest in the position. When I was recruiting at career fairs, the only people I noticed doing this were graduate students from India who had spent only a short time in the US. And typically the people with the extremely expressive introduction came otherwise heavily prepared, with a resume and cover letter hand-tailored to job postings on our website.

I can't fault anyone for preparation, however, given so many people come totally unprepared -- "man, you're the tenth person today to ask for a copy of my resume, nobody told me I should've brought any!"

schintan• 15 years ago

If you’re not sure, err on the side of caution

Maybe that is what they are trying to do

larrik• 15 years ago

"Please do not fart by our table and then walk away. I beg you."

So you should fart and then NOT walk away? Clearly, you should stick around because... we will want to hire you? I mean, what's the alternative here?

xteemarie3• 15 years ago

Use the bathroom. Hold it in.

Groxx3• 15 years ago

I've had no end of success by simply slapping a name sticker over my coat, wearing my side-backpack/laptop-bag, both of which because I usually have limited time before class, and simply having fun.

Booth-sitters are usually bored, know less about the details of the job you might get than the people you'd be working with (they're often HR), and have dealt with many kids wearing suits and sounding important. But they are there to be the first line of defense. So be yourself, someone they could work with and maybe even like, rather than someone who sounds like everyone is trying to sound like!

And bring a resume. One page. If you can't sell yourself in half that, they won't read the rest, so make your point and make it fast.

iuygtfrikuj2• 15 years ago

Any booth that doesn't have real workers on ignore. There is no point in talking to MSFT HR drones at a MSFT stand - what have learned that you couldn't get from the application web page.

ps. It is worth looking for companies you have never heard of. While there is no point in listening to a speech from a MSFT HR drone - the small company that have their CTO on the stand who are making a cool technology might be worth your time.

Groxx3• 15 years ago

You may hear of un-published openings (almost every single instance, in my experience - they save some for the fairs), and you've gone past the initial HR barrier if you sell yourself well as a person. Bypassing hoops you have to jump through helps immensely.

twymer• 15 years ago

In prior experience (having now been on both sides of the table) it's not about what you (the job seeker) learn it's about what they (the employer) learn.

Not that they can hope to get much information, just enough to filter your resume in a good or bad pile. Some companies collect huge piles of resumes and simply can't call them all. Seeming intelligent and interested in the company may be the only reason they call you from that resume.

artmageddon2• 15 years ago

In my experience, recruiters who set up at career fairs tend to do it wrong sometimes, too. I haven't been to a career fair since I graduated university in 2004, but there are reasons I stopped going to them.

1. Show Up. This is self-explanatory, right? On a number of occasions, a company would set up a table with a poster or two alongside a locked bin for people to drop their resumes in. I don't mind if a one-person booth steps out for a little bit for a snack or to use the restroom, but I've seen more than several booths totally unmanned during an entire fair. It puts a bad image on your company that you can't even bother to send an individual or two to represent your interests.

2. If you don't have positions open, don't show up. This might contradict point #1, but almost worse yet were people who were just there to collect resumes even though they didn't have jobs open at their company. It's just as stimulating as getting an email saying "We'll keep your resume on file." If you're not hiring, why am I talking to you?

3. On demanding absolute GPA minimums. I get that each company wants to hire the best and the brightest especially when hosting booths at university fairs, but honestly those who are expecting a certain GPA without giving any consideration to experience or what the candidate demonstrates in knowledge.. well, it makes you look like asses. I recall(read: I was bitter for a little while about) talking to a recruiter from a well respected financial company looking for developers. The first thing he asked me was my GPA, and after telling him it was about .08 points under their minimum cut-off, he simply handed my resume back and refused to talk to me. Joke's on them since I got hired at a larger one a little while after I graduated about a year later...

4. If you're a big company, send multiple people. Our time is just as valuable as yours, and I don't want to wait for 30 other people to each get done shooting their 4-minute breeze with you as the only person at your table. Having multiple people to talk to candidates helps everyone feel like the line is moving, and distracts me from having to mentally figure out how many other companies I could've talked to while I waited in your line. I understand it's not always possible since career fairs are pretty low on a company's day-to-day priority list, but nevertheless it should be taken into consideration.

5. Go beyond brochures I'm a literate person and I've probably already combed through your website. Talk to me about what you do, and what your experience with your company has been like. Smiling and handing me a brochure and hoping that I'll walk away isn't going to leave me with a memorable impression.

6. Free swag rules This isn't actually a bone to pick.. but having unique swag to give out is good PR. If you don't have anything it's perfectly fine, too. But people like free stuff :)

EazyD123• 15 years ago

>>"I'm a literate person and I've probably already combed through your website. "

You'd be surprised. The vast majority of people haven't done any research on the exhibiting company at all. It's a real treat when they have visited the website! Unfortunately, not the norm.

artmageddon2• 15 years ago

Fair enough, I can see the frustration with that... and I do understand from you and the article that recruiters do have it tough, too.

I would usually pick out companies who I would want to talk to and research them a couple of days before the event. The key here is that I'm looking for something from the recruiter that I can't get from the website, be it an edge or further insight with experiences about the company. Simply repeating the company's mission statement and handing me the website equivalent on glossy paper isn't all that much of a help(this isn't too frequent a case but it's happened).

kd0amg2• 15 years ago

From my experience here, I would add:

7. Don't just direct everyone to your web site. This ties in to some extent with #2. If you're not meeting the students, setting up interviews, holding info sessions, etc., then your physical presence is superfluous and distorts students' expectations of career fair.

8. Don't say you're looking for students from all majors. You won't get taken seriously. Maybe your company really does have openings in every field this school offers, but USPTO is the only employer I've seen who can even come close to justifying this claim.

It's also worth noting that students (here, at least) talk to each other about the recruiters they've encountered. Students remember really good recruiters and those who make serious faux pas.

jrockway• 15 years ago

Don't say you're looking for students from all majors

Why not? If you're smart and are interested in programming, it's quite possible that I am willing to "take a chance" on you. It doesn't really matter if you studied data structures or English literature; CS majors have as much experience writing real software as English majors do.

shaggyfrog• 15 years ago

> The first thing he asked me was my GPA, and after telling him it was about .08 points under their minimum cut-off, he simply handed my resume back and refused to talk to me.

They did you a big favour as that's a giant red flag. Visions of pointy-haired bosses and inscrutable bureaucracies flash through my mind.

ig1• 15 years ago

The reasons for some of these behaviours:

3) Imagine you have 10,000 more or less identical CVs, how do you propose to filter them in a cost efficient manner ? - GPA is a quick and dirty solution. Sure you might miss out on some good people, but that's always going to be the case with whichever criteria you use.

4) Sending an extra person for the day will cost a company around $1500. The handfull of students who aren't willing to hang around for a bit aren't worth that extra cost.

daimyoyo• 15 years ago

"There are jobs for you out there, I promise."

I agree completely. After all, lattes don't make themselves, now do they?

kevinburke• 15 years ago

Maybe it's just me, but I haven't had a good experience with career fairs - too many people and it's difficult to stand out. I prefer reaching out to someone in the company, in our school's alumni network or asking for a mutual introduction. Hacker News has also been a good source of leads.

Career Fairs: May I Have a Mug, Sir?

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