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About three years ago I was desperately seeking a new job.
The Alumni Association of my alma mater was putting on a career fair. Since it was a major state university, the largest school in the state, I had high hopes for this career fair.
I went there with a few copies of my most up-to-date resume, and here is what I found:
A half-dozen insurance companies looking for people to either independently sell life/car insurance or to sell it on commission for their agency (or in one case, to work a 60 hour workweek for $20k/year + commission, with no guarantees of just how big those commissions were). Of course, you didn't need a degree for this job, and they were desperately seeking salesmen on every job-search site out there.
A handful of retail stores that were ostensibly there to hire for management positions, but if pressed admitted they really weren't hiring now or only wanted BBA's (or preferably MBA's). . .for entry-level Assistant Manager positions at local grocery stores and pharmacies. If you didn't have a Business Management degree, you could apply to be a cashier or stocker, with no additional consideration in pay for degrees. Yeah, because I went to school for 5 years and got 2 B.A.'s to do the same work for the same pay as somebody who didn't have a degree.
A car rental firm which was hiring for "Management Trainees" and seem to take all comers, but digging a little further showed that "Management Trainee" was their term for "general grunt" and every employee was a "Manager", but that way they could make them work 60 or 70 hour workweeks with no overtime and you could make as much money working a 40 hour workweek at retail or fast food.
A few state and federal agencies which either said they didn't have any openings but were required by policy to be at the fair, or were only hiring from a handful of very specific majors (Accounting, for example)
A large law firm which was there to hire paralegals. Problem is, they required an Associate's Degree in Paralegal Studies for the position (and 2 years of prior experience). I had a B.A. in Political Science with about 30 credit hours in legal/pre-law classes and had done several internships at law firms doing Paralegal and Legal Secretary work, but unless I had that Associates Degree they wouldn't even talk to me. The real zinger was that this University that was hosting the career fair didn't even offer Associate's Degrees, much less the specific one they needed. I doubt anybody at the fair met their criteria.
A few tech firms which said if you were an Electrical Engineering or Computer Science major with a bunch of additional certifications, a sterling academic record, and prior experience you might get an interview.
. . .so, what did I get from this fair, advertised repeatedly as "For All Majors"?
I could interview to sell insurance. . .which I could do by looking at waste-of-time job search sites like Monster, or even worse, Careerbuilder, or just go back to applying to retail and fast food places.
The Alumni Association of my alma mater was putting on a career fair. Since it was a major state university, the largest school in the state, I had high hopes for this career fair.
I went there with a few copies of my most up-to-date resume, and here is what I found:
A half-dozen insurance companies looking for people to either independently sell life/car insurance or to sell it on commission for their agency (or in one case, to work a 60 hour workweek for $20k/year + commission, with no guarantees of just how big those commissions were). Of course, you didn't need a degree for this job, and they were desperately seeking salesmen on every job-search site out there.
A handful of retail stores that were ostensibly there to hire for management positions, but if pressed admitted they really weren't hiring now or only wanted BBA's (or preferably MBA's). . .for entry-level Assistant Manager positions at local grocery stores and pharmacies. If you didn't have a Business Management degree, you could apply to be a cashier or stocker, with no additional consideration in pay for degrees. Yeah, because I went to school for 5 years and got 2 B.A.'s to do the same work for the same pay as somebody who didn't have a degree.
A car rental firm which was hiring for "Management Trainees" and seem to take all comers, but digging a little further showed that "Management Trainee" was their term for "general grunt" and every employee was a "Manager", but that way they could make them work 60 or 70 hour workweeks with no overtime and you could make as much money working a 40 hour workweek at retail or fast food.
A few state and federal agencies which either said they didn't have any openings but were required by policy to be at the fair, or were only hiring from a handful of very specific majors (Accounting, for example)
A large law firm which was there to hire paralegals. Problem is, they required an Associate's Degree in Paralegal Studies for the position (and 2 years of prior experience). I had a B.A. in Political Science with about 30 credit hours in legal/pre-law classes and had done several internships at law firms doing Paralegal and Legal Secretary work, but unless I had that Associates Degree they wouldn't even talk to me. The real zinger was that this University that was hosting the career fair didn't even offer Associate's Degrees, much less the specific one they needed. I doubt anybody at the fair met their criteria.
A few tech firms which said if you were an Electrical Engineering or Computer Science major with a bunch of additional certifications, a sterling academic record, and prior experience you might get an interview.
. . .so, what did I get from this fair, advertised repeatedly as "For All Majors"?
I could interview to sell insurance. . .which I could do by looking at waste-of-time job search sites like Monster, or even worse, Careerbuilder, or just go back to applying to retail and fast food places.
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