campus career fairs, any luck getting experienced level positions?

[skim milk]

I am 2-3 years out of school so I don't want to go entry level unless I switch into a new industry which I don't have experience in and it's a position that I really want. Otherwise, I am looking for experienced level. I've been going to school part-time and will be graduating next spring.

The only reason why I am thinking about going to career fairs is because I get to meet the company reps in person to explain what I want to do and how my background ties in. Some good companies have presence on campus.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Any opportunity to make connections is a good one. It's also a chance to learn something about a company's culture.

 

[DougK62]

What industry? 2-3 years experience is entry-level to me.

 

[bignateyk]

What industry? 2-3 years experience is entry-level to me.

Yeah, in engineering anything under 5 years is generally considered entry level. That's why I'm trying to stick it out to the 5 year mark at my current job so that when I switch I don't have to drop back to another entry level job. Only 1 more year to go...

 

[Gibson486]

I have never had any luck with any type of career fair. It' s usually there to try to establish a network, but if you use it just to get a job, you will be wasting your time. However, as a person who has 3 years experience, it was easier this time around. This time, I actually had stuff to talk about when I got there. This time it was me looking around and I knew what I wanted and I had tools that other companies may want.

For big companies, they are usually there just to give company presence. They will tell you lots of times to apply online.

 

[beyonddc]

For big companies, they are usually there just to give company presence. They will tell you lots of times to apply online.

Yup, that's the case for the company I am working at. We have been told to tell the student to submit their application on the Internet.

 

[Anubis]

Yup, that's the case for the company I am working at. We have been told to tell the student to submit their application on the Internet.

as much as i love the internet submitting resumes online fucking sucks

 

[GlacierFreeze]

Went to at least 3 career fairs. All were wastes of my time.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

the years i attended my campus career fairs, i was competing for crappy internship with 4.0cumulative GPA grad students. all were a complete waste of time.

many companies, even back then, would just BS you, then say submit resume online

 

[beyonddc]

as much as i love the internet submitting resumes online fucking sucks

I hear you. It does felt like submitting a resume into a black hole.

I graduated about 7 years ago. I remember before graduating from college, I submitted my resume online for an application developer position at a bank. They decided to call me after 6 months I submitted the resume. I almost forgot the job description, luckily I always save a copy of the job description to a word document on all the jobs that I applied. eh... um... I guess my point is sometime you will eventually hear something from the black hole except you never know when which is why I also think submitting resume online does sucks.

 

[Ns1]

to be fair, at my company you must apply online even if someone is putting you on the fast track to getting hired.

 

[shortylickens]

I hear you. It does felt like submitting a resume into a black hole.

It pretty much is. If the recruiter or HR people were really interested in you they wouldnt let you leave until they had your contact info, and they would tell you to email the resume directly to one of them, so they wouldnt have to worry about it disappearing.

 

[beyonddc]

to be fair, at my company you must apply online even if someone is putting you on the fast track to getting hired.

Understood. Everything is like that now. Even for applying jobs within my company.

 

[skim milk]

the years i attended my campus career fairs, i was competing for crappy internship with 4.0cumulative GPA grad students. all were a complete waste of time.

many companies, even back then, would just BS you, then say submit resume online

well I had good experience going to my undergrad's career fair. Got calls back for interviews. Eventually landed a summer internship at a top tier financial services company through on campus career fair which opened up a lot of doors after that.

 

[beyonddc]

A lot of recruiters are using LinkedIn these days. I would suggest using LinkedIn as an alternative mean to look for jobs other than the typical job sites like Monster and HotJobs.

oops! Sorry I derailed from the topic.

 

[Pollock]

as much as i love the internet submitting resumes online fucking sucks

truth

 

[ModerateRepZero]

Any opportunity to make connections is a good one. It's also a chance to learn something about a company's culture.

This ^^. In fairness it's also more often than not that due to convenience, policy, or other reasons, even if the company rep will take your resume/CL that they'll say "apply online". But at least you can demonstrate interest in the CL when you do apply by saying that you went to a career fair on X date, and spoke with Y, who said XYZ....sounds better than someone who just said that they saw the job posting and thought they were qualified for the position, doesn't it?

With one govt. agency, even though they took my resume, they said to apply online (usajobs).

 

[Wonderful Pork]

There are all sorts of hoops to jump through now in order to be Dept. of Labor/OFFCP compliant. To abide by these rules (which are often audited by the government), many companies are making it mandatory for all applicants to apply online.

At the company I work for, even if you meet with somebody at a career fair, if you don't meet all of the requirements of the position(min 3.0 gpa, BSEE, whatever) you're resume isn't even considered by the automated system. Sucks, but it keeps the playing field fair for everybody.

 

[RaistlinZ]

They probably want all to apply online just to keep everything organized in one place, so that your resume doesn't get lost in the shuffle. You still might get special consideration even if applying to the online black hole.

The company recruiter can say, "Oh yeah, I met her at the career fair and she seemed like she'd be a good fit here. We should bring her in for an interview."