Jobs fairs

The circus is back in town; Sorry the jobs fair hoi polloi is back in my area.
After being Mandated/JSD to attend the local jobs fair by the Roach . I was just wondering if anyone has found any positives from these events. Other than to waste my time, the only benefit I could find is that it fills in some time on my job search sheet… Are these events a necessary delusion to give the impression that there is plenty of work in the UK? As I have not found them of any use, has anyone else found any benefit from them, other than to keep people in a job? As most of the information I asked the drone at the table about the company, to show some willing. She directed me to their website…

And I have never tried to do a online poll, so here goes....

I can only speak from personal experience El Dude. I have to admit that my experience is similar to yours.  

Additionally, some companies attend job fairs even if they have no actual vacancies, as they do not want to lose face with competitors who may also be there

found them to be a waste of time

however a job fair can be used by dwp to collect your dpa info from a claimant when they are applying for a job, ive never liked the jobs being interviewed at dwp always suspected them to be a fake interview

its somewhat a fake exercise i think really to inconvenience or at best to catch people out

i dont know how many times my dwp roach tried to quote plenty of jobs out there but they kinda hated my comment as threw it back at them they didnt like the comment about cv library for a job

I would suggest that if attending a job fair, do not provide details to any specific recruiter. It is better to ask them what specific vacancies they have and where the full job specification can be viewed (in line with a transparent application process). If they have got vacancies then they will not be offended that you wish to look at these without handing over personal details first.

I would be wary of any recruiter wanting to collect information without giving details of an actual vacancy

Also, you could query the reason for any vacancy. Ask about staff turnover / satisfaction /morale.

If you are mandated to a job fair then you can certainly look engaged by asking in depth questions, without giving away anything about yourself. No one can then say that you failed to participate.

Always claim travel fares if the job fair is not on your signing day.

Good advice there @Caker, and I always get some souvenir's from the stall's as some evidence that I attended the show. I used to end up with a load of pens, now you have trouble getting a anything from the company's...

......I bet they got wise to people just coming for the pens  

I have about 100 free pens and I have had to start giving them to family as I will never use them all before the ink dries up.

At a local jobs fairs I attended 99% of the employers there were looking for cheap labour via apprenticeships. Even the local newspaper reporting on the event spent the entirety of the report talking about 16-19 year olds as the demographic that was being targeted.

Thankfully, I have never attended a Jobsfair.

However, if you are mandated to attend, the requirement must be reasonable for your circumstances i.e. the work coach must be able to show that employers will present that match your claimant commitment/circumstances.

DO NOT FORGET TO CLAIM YOUR TRAVEL EXPENSES!

Good points Non-Def

To you posting comment "if you are mandated to attend, the requirement must be reasonable for your circumstances i.e. the work coach must be able to show that employers will present that match your claimant commitment/circumstances.". I did ask the Roach    a question of if it was relative to my sector of work/experience? To which there reply was a vague 'you don't know what you will find, unless you try'   .

This is the way I feel about jobs fairs    

@El-Dude, your roach gave an extremely glib answer. Surely they know what sectors will be represented at the job fair and whether it is anything to do with your CC or not They are just sending claimants on a fools errand.

I agree @Caker, but hey it adds to my Actively-Seeking-Employment, doesn't it....

El-dudeareno wrote:I agree @Caker, but hey it adds to my Actively-Seeking-Employment, doesn't it....

anything which cranks up the quota is OK