Photo Credits: gingerldk
Job fairs are getting ridiculous these days. It’s not uncommon to see tens of thousands of applicants scramble to take a shot at just a handful of jobs.
In almost every professional meet-up I’ve attended in the past six months the question has inevitably come up: “is it really worth it to go to a job fair?”
The answer, of course, depends of what you expect.
Watching soccer back in South America, I could never understand why whenever a referee called a penalty kick against one of the teams, the players would immediately surround him and argue, sometimes yelling and making threatening gestures with their hands.
If you’ve watched soccer before, you know that a referee never takes back a penalty call. Why, then, do players even bother to argue over it? Simple: they do it to give the referee a guilt trip. They want to condition him into believing that the call was unfair so that his calls become more favorable later in the game.
While this strategy may seem questionable and childish, those players are just trying to shape the future to their advantage by influencing the decision maker. They understand that the current situation will most likely not change, but they want to ensure a better outcome in the future.
Going to a job fair expecting to get a job can be as frustrating as expecting a referee to take back a penalty call. Instead, go to the job fair to meet recruiters and peers, promote your personal brand, and expand your contact base to increase your chances of finding a job in the future.
You don’t go to a job fair to get a job. You go there to network.
Kind of like the adage that the best time to borrow money is when you don’t need it, maybe the best time to go to a job fair is when you are fully employed?
I like the idea of having the goal of attending a job fair being networking (which is in your control) rather than securing a job. Sort of like deciding that your goal of going to a nightclub is to dance and have a good time, rather than to Find Your One True Love.