Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

I've been to a few. The companies or airlines that you'd like to fly for are never hiring at these fairs, it's more "face-time" to "get to know" them, so the company can promote themselves. If a company is looking for people to hire, it's usually just bodies at the regional airline level, with people literally "lining up" at the ones that are hiring. They have no problem attracting people, yet unless the company you want to work for is actively doing interviews AT the job fair or as a result of it, I would skip it and focus your energy on really figuring out how to target a resume or application to a specific job. That's the real skill, and that's what gets you hired. None of my interviews were results of job fairs, even for aerospace companies that were at job fairs. If you are only looking at pilot jobs, it's hours that get you hired, not fairs (unless they are desperate for bodies and doing the "interview at the fair" thing). If you are looking at anything else, it's skills related to resumes and answering application questions that gets you hired. For a few uneducated (on the real hiring process) people, the job fair can fill you in on "what they are looking for" to some extent, but I've found that some companies aren't exactly forthcoming either. They make it a "game" sometimes, because they don't really send anyone to the fair that can tell you exactly how to promote yourself properly for the position. From their point of view, they don't have to do anything, just let people come to them and they get to sort out all the resumes later.

I'd say for the most part, aviation "job fairs" are for one of a couple reasons: To make money (the pay-for type). For face-time and promotion of the industry/company (arranged by universities or industry). Desperate attempts to get bodies for jobs that aren't getting many results online. There seems to be less and less correlation these days between the companies at the job fair and hiring as a result of it. Remember that everyone is connected online these days. The reason that job fairs existed 30 years ago is probably not the same reason they exist now. How many people out there are scouring the various job-boards and sites daily waiting to pounce on an opening as soon as it shows? If anything, it's probably to generate more online applications that aren't directly related to the fair ("did you hear so and so was hiring?" "oh yeah! john went to the job fair!").