The OBAP convention is coming up in Aug.

For anyone that has gone before, how does this work?
Does United just have a booth and you hang out there until you get to talk with a rep or do they have some kind of system?

Does it matter which day you go? The schedule says the Career Fair starts Wed at 11am and goes all day Thur & Fri.

 

I went last year at Atlanta. You set up a time to meet with United online through the OBAP site. Show up at the convention center well before that time because you'll probably have a line to get your convention packet and pass. When you go in get in line about 30 minutes prior to your allotted time. At Atlanta they were running a bit behind so they asked what your time was and told you when to come back.

Wear a suit like you're going to an interview. Bring a resume with the correct airline name on it.

 

We had a booth at OBAP last year. During the last day you could talk to Southwest and JetBlue for an hour. The ballroom was fairly empty. There was still a line at American, United and Delta but it wasn't as long as the first two days.

Good luck and come to event prepared. Know what you are going to say. If you have any questions stop by our booth and say hello.

 

Are the reps at the convention people who actually are involved in the selection process or are they just people from HR?

I'm just curious who you are actually talking to. My company ran a "career day" last year. They did it because they needed to get more resumes. They asked anyone who wanted to help out to be there and talk to candidates. They said after the event they didn't really get a lot of people that they were looking for. But I wondered if several fell through the cracks because they talked to someone that just took the resume and didn't put any notes on it or talk to someone in our hiring dept about the person.

Does anyone know what their process is? Do they just collect the resumes and maybe make some notes on them and pass them to HR?
I've seen some other posts that say you get points for going to a career fair and meeting reps, but how do they record that? They would have to look up every person that comes and open their record in the database and check some box.

Maybe someone who went through the process last year can explain how they work it.

 

Glad I found this post before I started an additional one.

I'm trying to come back from my expat job by the end of this year, looking at realistic options to get me back into a career at home. Any tips for what to expect from a chat with Atlas and JetBlue are appreciated!

 

Ok I'll shoot. Do you have to be OBAP to attend?

 

A member, yes. Black, no.

 

Where do you sign up on the website? Is it unavailable until right before he fair?

 

Is there anything to having a specific resume for each airline? I've heard of that and although I've never done it, if it helps I'll change it. I've also heard of someone giving the wrong one out during an interview

 

It absolutely cannot hurt. It does show an extra step that another applicant may have not done. Attention to detail.

A clear objective that you want to work at XYZ is a good touch.
Show up sober and have your resumes organized