Job fairs are suddenly the flavour of the season. A civil aviation career fair has got off the ground in Bangalore. The Confederation of Indian Industry has organised a fair for the northeast. And a specialised fair for the textile industry will roll out later in July.

According to international definition, placements at colleges are also job fairs. We have had a lot of that recently, with companies increasing their interactions with the IITs and the IIMs and also spreading to lesser institutes. If you add that in, job fairs are all over the place.

Traditionally, job fairs proliferate at the extremes. When there are too many people looking for too few jobs, a job fair provides an easy way of weeding out the unwanted. HR managers say that the cost of participating in such a fair is very low. “Applicants for a job can be divided into those you want to interview and those you are sure you will reject,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh. “That’s quite easy to handle. But there are many in the middle you can’t quite make up your mind about. If you could see them, interact for perhaps 30 seconds, it would be much easier to decide. But if you call someone for an interview, you have to spend at least 15 minutes with him. That adds up to a lot of money in executive time. It’s far more economical to exchange a few words at a job fair while accepting a bio-data.”

There is scope for job fairs at the other end of the spectrum: when there are too many jobs and too few applicants. The forthcoming textile job fair at Tirupur is an example of this. Over the past few years, demand in the industry has gone way past available talent. You need events like this to drum up excitement.

“First, it helps to locate new employees who need not necessarily have industry experience,” says Singh. “Secondly, if you create sufficient noise about the fair, you will get a lot of people from the industry coming to check it out. They may have no desire to leave their company. But you at least get the scope to woo them. They wouldn’t have come with their CVs but they would probably be willing to listen to your presentations.”

The state of the job market also determines the quality of the job fair. If there is a glut of talent, most companies treat fairs as assembly-line operations. You stand in queue, hand in your CV and, if you are lucky, get a company brochure and a cheap freebie. If there is a shortage, you may well get tea and biscuits and a pep talk from a senior company official. It helps, of course, that given the demand-supply situation, it is unlikely that lines are forming outside the company booths. So they have more time to spend on you.

Consider another example of the environment at job fairs. During placement season at the top business schools, companies are graded according to demand from the students. The best companies get a chance to pick the cream on the first day (or Day Zero as it has come to be called). The rest follow.

You can literally see the excitement on Day Zero. Companies bring in their CEOs to make a pitch. The students are all in suits. There is a lot of hardsell from both sides. Journalists converge to report on salaries. By the evening, when the dust has settled, there is euphoria (and celebrations).

Compare this with the last day of placement. The students still looking for a job are ashamed to admit it. The firms know they will get only the leftovers; they too see this as a futile exercise. At IIM Calcutta recently, both interviewer and interviewee arrived in T-shirts and chappals. The lesson from all this is that job fairs aren’t necessarily the best of places to find your dream assignment. It is a bit downmarket anyway. And, depending on the environment, it could be quite unfair.

PREPARING FOR THE FAIRWAY

How to make the most of a job fair

• Find out what businesses will be there.

• Develop some questions you’d like to ask employers.

• Proofread your resume at least twice.

• Be sure your resume contains your updated contact information.

• Dress the part. As with a job interview, first impressions at a job fair are important.

• Use your research to appear confident and knowledgeable.

• Have a firm handshake and maintain eye contact.

• Follow up with a thank you note.

Source: EmploymentGuide.com