This morning, Good Morning America hosted a job fair at Cobo Hall in Detroit. Since I’m now unemployed (have been for a week now), I thought that I would attend in hopes of getting a job lead. My local ABC affiliate, Channel 12 was broadcasting from there, as well as GMA and a couple of other local channels.
Doors were to open at 6am and close at 10am. I got there at 6am – and was about the 300th person in line. That is a guestimate of mine – I don’t actually know how many were ahead of me, but I did not get to enter the hall where the companies were setup until 7am as they were only allowing so many in at a time. The line was going from the hall straight down to the other end of the building – and had started looping about 3 times in that half of the building by the time I started moving forward. When I left the facility at 10:20, the line was even longer than when I had started moving into the hall. I’d be interested in hearing if they knew how many people showed up today – it’s in the thousands that’s for sure.
One complaint that I have about the job fair – they had everyone (about 70 companies) stuffed into one little corner of the hall. The rest of the hall was roped off with people stationed to make sure no one went past the ropes. There wasn’t nearly enough room between the lines of tables for everyone – especially with some of the tables (Kellogg’s and NSA just to name 2) having lines of about 30 people waiting to speak with the recruiters.
But, I did get a couple of job leads. I have a qualification exam with Comcast on Thursday afternoon for a Technical Support Specialist (call center) position. I’ve also got a couple of leads from other companies hiring in Michigan and a couple hiring in other states (IT). As much as I want to stay in Michigan (it is my home and I love it here), I am willing to relocate if it means getting a decent job. Many of the companies wouldn’t even talk to me about IT positions unless I was willing to relocate. A sad reality of being in the Information Technology field in Michigan.
This was my first ever job fair, and to be honest I did not know what to expect when I went. I was rather surprised that at the entrance of the hall, there were big white “gift” bags for us to take. I quickly found out why – several companies had not just literature for you to take, but also promotional items like pens, notepads, etc. I got a tiny stapler, a “stress” ball (well, it’s actually star shaped), a frisbee, several pens and notepads and even some food like cookies, candy, individual box of frosted mini-wheats, a bottle of water, and a bottle of protein water. Yes, Kellogg’s was there. 
Well, I better get back to filling out online applications. Even though I took 70 copies of my résumé (handed out about 20), many companies said to apply online in addition or instead of accepting the paper résumé.
