Death by Job Fair
- Ancient Rome had gladiator battles and the Colosseum. London has job fairs and conference rooms. Seriously.
- When you walk into one, you literally feel like you have to throw down with the aggressive undergrad to your right in order to talk to anyone. I mean I have been to job fairs before, sure, but this is England! Home of high pinkies and cucumber sandwiches! I guess I had imagined a quiet tea party with classical music playing in the background. This is...not the case.
- I have now been to 3 of these fairs, with promises of meeting representatives from consulting firms, NGOs, MNCs, etc. Yes, you meet people but, 9 times out of 10, they have no more information for you than what's already on the firm's website. And you can rest assured that, despite significant time spent developing good questions and picking out the best outfit, not a single rep will remember your name.
- Still, it is possible to narrow down a list of companies by paying attention to things like the types of representatives they bring (ie recruiting staff vs. actual consultants...), how scripted answers tend to be, and how they answer idiotic questions like "What is an MBA?" Not a joke. I witnessed this. It was unfortunate.
- More unfortunate: international body odor. You think I'm kidding.
Maybe no one has given you this advice, but you still need to wear deoderant when you go to job fairs abroad - maybe then you won't have this international odor that's prevented you from making headway in the job search.
ReplyDeleteAlso - if you have question like what an MBA is, you can ask us first, we'd be glad to help.
Third, you need to break out the sunshine when you get to these fairs and let them know you've arrived - cheese it up like you know how. Also, build up their ego's, they'll feel good and remember you for that. The only other advice I have is to sleep with them and see where that takes you. Gosh I hope they don't read this blog.