That career fair in Austin where nobody asked about my actual skills

I spent 4 hours at a big tech career fair in Austin last month, and every recruiter just wanted to talk about my degree and GPA instead of the projects I built. One guy literally interrupted me mid-sentence to ask about a class I took 3 years ago. Do hiring events actually help anyone find real work, or are they just a way for companies to filter by college name?

2 comments

2 Comments

victor_adams951mo ago

Started doing the same thing and got totally ignored until I switched up my approach. Walked up to a smaller company's booth and just started talking about a side project I built, showed them a quick demo on my phone. Ended up getting an interview out of it.

adam_anderson61mo ago

That whole "walked up and showed a demo on my phone" thing sounds like one of those stories that only works if everything lines up perfectly. Most people trying that would just get brushed off or handed a card with no follow up. I'm skeptical it's really that serious of a game changer... feels like you got lucky with the right person at the right booth. Smaller companies are more likely to stop and chat, sure, but one interview doesn't prove the whole approach works. Probably depends more on who you talk to than how you start the conversation.