Thursday, March 26, 2009

Adventures in Job Hunting

In all of my job hunting experience, I'd never gone to a Job Fair before. Today was the day! One of the job board sites, JobCircle, was sponsoring a diversity job fair downtown at the Kimmel Center.

The list of potential employers looked good, and everyone seems to be going to job fairs. So I put on my professional dress and headed out in the rain.

What a complete waste of time! They had thousands of people coming through the doors with resumes, all eager job hunters. At every table there was an HR person reciting the same mantra, "You have to apply for the jobs on our web site." They didn't even know what jobs were available at their own companies. "You have to check our web site."

Now what was the point of dragging all these people downtown, when they all could have sat home or at the library on a computer and applied for those jobs? There was no personal interaction there. They weren't looking at people's resumes. Applicants had been told to bring 25 copies of their resume to this event.

Now, I can't say it was a rip-off, because they didn't charge. And they did have someone doing resume critiques and how to job hunt sessions. But was in worth the time and the money spent to get there? No way.

So, now I know. It's been to networking, which has been a lot of fun. I've gone to PRSA meetings and IABC meetings. I've reconnected with my old boss from the Abramson Center for Jewish Life. And I've had a blast at the Greater Northeast Philly Chamber of Commerce.

But now I need to get serious and really find a job!


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