<p>These people seriously make it sound like they'd hire you on the spot if they could, but it seems like they warp the reality of the situation and give you false hope. Either I'm disillusioned after today's career fair or I'm just cynical, but how legit are the claims of the reps? Has anyone actually gotten a position after a rep said, "I think you'll go far in _______"? It all feels sugarcoated.</p>
<p>you aren’t the only one sharing the same sentiments. I have heard the same being expressed by a couple of friends.</p>
<p>I’m going to update this thread…</p>
<p>After the rep said, “I think you’ll go far in …,” he followed up with an email within two or three days. He carbon-copied the follow up email with a senior programmer in his team and asked him to set up a telephone interview with me. I asked him to set it up after Halloween and I had an on-the-fly technical interview. I had no da.mn clue it was supposed to be technical, and I ****ed my pants. Apparently, I did all right and the interviewer set up an in-person interview in Sunnyvale. 4 hours later, I drove back to Berkeley (first time experiencing NorCal rush hour, and man, I gotta say, so much better than SoCal…so much better). Nearly two months later (thanks to holidays and paperwork), I have a decent offer that I will accept :)</p>
<p>Moral of the story: don’t take career fair reps lightly if they show interest in you. Something might come of it.</p>
<p>Where are you working?</p>
<p>Reps are supposed to be enthusiastic about the company and there is nothing to say they can’t push ur resume. Meeting them in person shows interest and if they like you enough they can get you an interview. It’s that easy. All they have to do is look out for your name when you apply, bam, you got the interview.</p>
<p>For more competitive positions like investment banking and big 4 accounting, career fairs are a good way to network your way in and show interest.</p>
<p>If you can differentiate yourself from the other mass of kids by sending follow-ups and thoughtful questions, you already have a leg up.</p>
<p>@Ektaylor: I’ll be working at Motorola in a field that I personally find really interesting. Excited :)</p>
<p>@Firapira: Yeah, but it’s rare that the rep works in your field of interest. You’re definitely right though. I guess I just underestimated the networking opportunities career fairs present, and I’m posting this for anyone else that thought like I did. Career fairs are extremely useful as long as you stand out.</p>
<p>Career fair reps often won’t help you get a job. I think there’s only been one case where talking to the rep may have helped me. Actually getting the job is mostly about the interviews and career fairs are more of a way to see which companies you’d be interested in working for, or for getting your resume into the interview pile. But if that’s not a concern for you and you know that you can get interviews reliably, then the career fair is more of a fun way to burn time, and you should work on learning how to pass the interviews reliably. Then you need to learn how to negotiate compensation reliably ;)</p>
<p>Negotiating compensation is tricky, LOL. I need housing compensated :(</p>