ToiletDuck

Have any of you been to a career fair before? I received an email stating my climbto350.com subscription had expired. I hadn't been there in a while so I decided to see what was posted. They had a few advertisements about career fairs coming up and I wondered how much of a difference that really made. There is one on Jan. 20th in miami I could make.
Duck

hatetobreakit2u

i went to one and it was useless and aeroservice seemed more like they were interested in selling type ratings to brainless kids by giving speeched on "the importances of having your type rating" before you apply.

but at least you put a face with your resume so i suppose it coudn't hurt

Spongebob

The AIR Inc. ones are OK. If you have 1/2 a brain the "seminar" is a waste of time (except for the industry news/health check), but it is included in the price, and includes food so you might as well go. No bad info, I just found the interview prep monotonous since I had done a bunch already. The Job fair in the afternoon is money - bring resumes tailored for each company you might be interested in, a couple generic in case someone unexpected shows (like Skybus at the DC fair) and make your way around.

More importantly, a great way to ask good questions in a neutral forum and it's a good opportunity to start/work your network with the other attendees, not to mention comparing job notes.

It means a lot to some companies if you put the effort in to go - CitationShares, NetJets, and AirTran among others. This is general true of all job fairs, flying or not. Effort counts. And you never know who you'll meet so be professional all day long; in the case of my Comair interview, the Capt I interviewed with had talked with me at the fair!

Summary: for Air Inc, worth the money to do once.

ToiletDuck

Thanks for the info spongebob. I'll have to check on the AIR inc. I didn't know there were regularly sponsored job fairs. I still need to work on my cover letter. I just can't get it off the ground.

Spongebob

I wouldn't worry about a cover letter for a job fair - the cover letter is used to introduce you and point out parts of your resume that show how well you match up to the published requirements of the job, typically if your submission was/is unsolicited...like if you were trying to get a corporate flight job when they haven't advertised and opening. At a job fair - you are going to do that in person, and they will hold the resume with the others they talk to. It's common for them to take notes over/on it while you talk.

If you want to leave an impression, make up business cards with your contact info and on the back state the position you are looking and quick summary of your experience. Then hand them to everyone you talk to.

Common theme from Spongebob's threads: Just make sure you do some research on each company (google is wonderful, as is yahoo finance) you plan to talk to so you can hold an intelligent and meaningful conversation.

HTH
Spongebob