I wasn’t planning to go but everyone else in the cohort was going. How could I decline if it was 50% off? It still felt scammy to pay a $5 fee to talk to possible employers. Shouldn’t employers be paying to speak to candidates like us instead? Alas, I had to go with the flow to avoid being left behind.
Dress Code
People were worried about how they would look. It reminded me of something someone once said about the dress code. “Don’t dress up for tech interviews: the more you dress up, the more they hate you.” I relayed that story to my brother and he responded with a story about a guy at work who was probably the best coder there and he wore a suit to work every day. I guess sometimes you can judge a book by its cover and sometimes you can’t.
Preparation
I didn’t dress up though. I didn’t even work on my resume. I didn’t know it was needed until the last minute when I was registering on the fair website. During all this, I felt overwhelmed. I have less than a dozen LinkedIn connections while others in my cohort have over 500. It might be a good idea to bring business cards also next time.
Arrival
There were multiple times you could schedule your own arrival: 4-5pm, 5-6pm, and 6-7pm. I figured that the early bird would get the worm so I picked the earliest time available which was 4pm. When I got there the place was already packed. I didn’t know job fairs had lines like this. It reminded me of Disneyland but for a corporate rat race. Nintendo had the longest line. By 6pm the lines were about as half as long. I should have come later. The only reason to go early is to get free stuff. If you want swag, go early. If you want to avoid long lines to talk to employers at their booths then go later. If you go right on time you’ll just end up at the end of a long line of people who arrived early.
Conclusion
Update your resume/portfolio
Print resume
Get business cards
Dress up but not TOO up
Don’t go too early.
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