The Job Fair

Yesterday i worked a job fair in Odessa trying to recruit some applicants for our company. I don't do this blind. My company has actually sent me to training classes for recruiting. We have several real nice booths that are very eye catching. I work the local and regional job fairs but my main focus is on the military bases. Yesterday was the first job fair i worked that was designed for the public. I have to tell you that i was shocked. Shocked.

I show up at 0900 to set up my booth. I lay out the table and place our employment packages on the table so potential applicants can take it home and review the information. I also keep a roster that i have them sign if i would be interested in a follow-up interview. Out of 8 hours at this job fair i had 6 people sign my roster. Disappointing isn't it?

I believe that people may not know what a job fair is intended to do. A job fair is a grouping of companies looking to recruit new employees. Seems simple enough. While working a job fair, the recruiters do a 2 minute interview with the potential applicants. Any recruiter that is any good can determine in 2 minutes or less if the applicant will fit the billet of what they are looking for. With this said, the public needs to know that every time you stop and talk to a recruiter you are being interviewed. They need to dress and act the part. It was pathetic.

First off most of the companies at the job fair were retail type companies. HEB, KFC, Taco Bell etc. This is good and bad. I am located in the middle of the fair and i set up a 10 foot booth that caught your eye as soon as you walked in. While all the retail companies are offering $7-9 per hour, i am hiring at $13 - 26 per hour DOE. This makes us shine like a diamond in a goats ass. Problem is that the caliber of people this job fair attracted was severely limited. Most of them would probably wash out at HEB. Sad.

I was sitting there at my booth and this lady came up to me and gave me her business card. She said her company was looking for good people. I said "Where is your companies booth?" she replied "We don't have a booth" I look at her and say " I paid $300 for my booth and you are going to walk around and try to recruit my people?" She had a puzzling look on her face like she didn't know what i was talking about. I gave her the business card back and asked her to move away from my booth as she was interfering with the flow of traffic. I think she figured out she pissed me off. Some people. Too make things worse, one of my people start cracking up laughing and it might have embarrassed her. It was funny. A lady in the next booth looked at me and said " You must be in sales" and started laughing.

You should have seen how some of the people were dressed. Flip flops, cut offs, T-Shirts, it was embarrassing. They had no clue that they were being interviewed. One guy asked me if i wanted him to sign my roster. I said no thank you. He asked me what it was for, i said it was for people i was going to call back for an interview. He looked sad. I actually had a guy come up and tell me that he couldn't do manual labor and didn't like working in the sun. I informed him that the Taco Bell booth was just down the isle.

All said i will probably make an offer to 2 or 3 people. We will see how many show up for the follow up interview.