I went to a major job fair hosted in Arlington yesterday. About 60 districts were represented there. I have to say it was insane. A couple thousand teachers showed up. I waited in line for one district for 2 hours just to talk to the reps. They were conducting 10 minutes mini interviews. Another district I waited over an hour to talk to just to hear that they dont know what positions are available yet. All in all I was there almost 5 hours. I was able to talk to 12 districts and basically put a face to the resume. A couple districts were only looking for bilingual and others sped. Biggest thing I got from all the districts was to email the principal directly. So I drove 4 hours each way to a job fair to hear what I already knew. Kinda feel like it was a waste of time and $100 in gas. Now next week I may be singing their praises if I get a job. But right now I am down.
I went to the job fair in Arlington as well. I got there an hour early and waited to get in. I'm glad I got there early because I was able to walk up to my top few districts and talk to them. I do agree with you though, this event seemed like it was just for networking not necessarily for the districts to interview/hire candidates right away. I talked to about 10-12 districts and by 10:00 I was overwhelmed by the amount of people that were there and the lines so I left but luckily I only live 30 min away. Sorry that you had to waste your gas!
I didnt get there till 10. You should have seen it about noon when teachers that only took a half day showed up.
Maybe it wasn't all for nothing . I went to a job fair and got my résumé and letter of reference in the hands of the director if HR. it was the one of two districts I went to speak with. I was granted an interview with the director and have been getting weekly interviews in a tough Colorado market. Hope this helps, keep your chin up its a long journey
I have been to many job fairs none of which really panned out to anything, except for one. I met our current superintendent at a job fair in April of 2009. He gave me his card. At the time all he had was middle school openings. i just tucked his card away. Fast forward about 8 weeks in June. I woke up one morning and decided to look at all the business cards I had and email those districts. My first email got me a job. The principal received it and within 10 minutes of me sending it out I had an interview for the following week. By the end of June I was hired and by July 1 was moved to my new town. Job fairs do sometimes hold a job for you.
If it makes you feel any better, I recently went to a job fair where I left feeling similarly. When I left, they did not have anything in mind either. The next week, I was called for an interview. You never know.
I used to be one of the folks representing my school in the DFW area at job fairs. While it may seem that there was little being done with your resume, we did a fair bit. We sort of graded folks with a quick impression, and the high ones went into a stack of people we called first. Usually we would end up with a decent stack of 10 or so people who really made us say, "WOW". One time, we made an offer at the table, but that is a rarity. As long as you made good impressions... you didn't waste your time.... now... if you went in asking how many days off you get a year... not so much.
I went in with a great attitude and sold myself well. but was a downer to spend so much time waiting in line to talk to people that acted like they didnt want to be there.
I've given up with job fairs, it's all too stressful! I've just signed up for all the job alerts you can get at websites like eteach. At least then you can tailor it down to exactly what you're looking for and your not waste your time with people that aren't interested.
