Went to a Job Fair at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma today

[Kennah]

Got some good leads.

I know, I know. I had the exact same reaction at first.

"That criminal motherfucker has a stadium named after him?!"

If they renamed Gitmo to Cheney Prison, that would seem more of an appropriate tribulation. Then, we could send him there, and it would be Cheney's Prison. I rather like that idea.

Anywho. Cheney Stadium is home to the Tacoma Rainiers, a AAA minor-league baseball team, and it's named for local businessman Ben Cheney. He is actually credited with standardizing the size of wall studs which reduced waste. Pretty cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheney_Stadium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Cheney
http://www.benbcheneyfoundation.org/cheneybio.html

[rsmith6621]

1. Tell Us About The Job Fair......

I could care less about Cheney stadium and baseball..

[Kennah]

4. Lots of sales jobs and management trainee jobs which aren't my thing

Couple of solid leads, got my resume into a lot of hands, and some who seemed to take a real interest. I tried to get a copy of the resume in their hands, even if they weren't hiring in IT. I figure maybe there's a chance they'll pass it along, but a lot I suspect will hit the round file. Whatever. Numbers game. I'm following up with Email and LinkedIn.

[Motown_Johnny]

2. That would have made a great documentary

Bringing together the crash of the economy and the loss of 8 million jobs while they were in office with people going to a stadium named after the bastard looking for the jobs they lost under his watch,


Oh The Irony!

[Broderick]

3. I wish a job upon you if that is what you went there looking for

Everyone is entitled to a job.

[hlthe2b]

5. Thank you for answering the obvious question....

But, can't they just refer to it as "Ben Cheney Stadium"?? Seems more appropriate for Brazillions of reasons. ;)

[Kennah]

6. Where is the planet Brazil?

[Kat45]

7. Great that you got some leads.

I get the impression that today's job fairs generally consist of shitloads of people lined up in hopes of finding a job but very few companies, with even fewer jobs, actually at the fair.

[Kennah]

8. There frequently are few real jobs at job fairs

Probably 25% are sales jobs or management training jobs, where I'm sure sales is going to be the push.

There's usually some minimum wage jobs, like warehouse work, but even a lot of those require some kind of experience with a fork lift, pallet jack, etc. I daresay if one has done that kind of work, one would know where the warehouses are to apply.

I try to shove a resume into the hand of someone at every booth, but the colleges and schools will usually tell me very quickly, "We're not hiring. We're just here to give information about training." One did take my resume, and in talking with me, he did say I might be good as a teacher for some tech stuff. If it were MS Office, yeah, I could probably do it.

A lot of the employers had printouts of job postings from their websites, they weren't taking resumes, at all, and said you need to go online and apply. WTF? Heck, don't waste people's time with that. Just have a link to your website on the job fair website.

I guess by virtue of having someone there, you can pick their brains and ask about the company. However, I doubt the ugly dark secrets are going to come out, and for people that need a job, I don't think they're going to give a rip. They'll take the job and deal with whatever bullshit they have to accept.

I went to every single booth, and there were probably about 40 in all. I probably got 5 good leads which, based on what they told me, MAY lead to something. Also maybe 10 more places where I can go post my resume and hope.