A day (or two) in the life of a job applicant at a public job fair...

Last month, I attended the Career Guide job fair of the Philippine Star held at SM Megamall.
I wanted to get a look and feel of how it is to attend a job fair nowadays (it has been about four years since I last manned a booth as a recruiter at these types of events).

The queue to the entrance snaked through five floors of the mall

Well, holy $%#T, Batman, it was a frenzy.

Kudos to the staff of the Philippine Star and the security team of SM Megamall for keeping the queue orderly - but that was still one hell of a line.  (In fact, it took me two days to get my applicant pass because I had to run back to the office for an urgent meeting with my students after about 2 and a 1/2 hours into the queue!).

The 2nd day wasn't as bad... doesn't mean it was faster though

On the second day, it took me close to three hours before I saw the entrance to the fair.  I came across a few familiar faces at the booths and re-connected with former colleagues and I even had a good conversation with one of them about taking his MBA at AIM.  I also met and spoke with a couple other company representatives. (always hit the "refresh" button on your network, folks).

There was a very interesting talk given by a guest speaker (sorry, I didn't get the name) and I liked how straight-forward her advice was (I'm sure her casual way of talking allowed the audience to grasp the concepts better).  She spoke of how to dress for an interview, what are the benefits of putting on makeup for girls, how tucking in your shirt properly makes a difference, etc.  I for one know I was properly groomed at that time - because applicants I would bump into kept asking me about what my company was and what were our available job openings.  I just pointed them to go to the companies I was familiar with.

That's one way of attracting talent - backpack your banner! :)

Don't get lost in the crowd...

If you are a fresh graduate, then it would probably make sense to go to public job fairs like this for entry level positions.  But honestly, if you have got years on you (and I saw a lot of these types of folks there - it takes one to know one), you will find it hard to compete with the younger folk.  If you're qualified and looking for a management level post, public job fairs is probably not the best way to start your networking. Most probably because of the high-volume recruitment environment of activities like this, the more senior hiring managers leave the work to their staff - and if networking is your intention, you would definitely want to talk to those higher up the food chain. You can also try talking to someone in an executive search firm who have live connections, like the guys in KSearch Asia or John Clements.  Get on LinkedIn too.

Remember, job hunting is not just about attending recruitment events like public job fairs- I suggest you to take a deep look at yourself, then find out what's out in the market, and then adapt/change before you attack a job opportunity that you've already researched (read this article).


Alonto for the assist...

Khairy Alonto took his MBA at AIM and now works there. Follow him on Twitter @khairyalonto or view his profile on http://ph.linkedin.com/in/khairyalonto