College Career Fair Question

Submitted by DennisR on Saturday February 7th, 2009 1:39 pm
in

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I recently found out that my current employer is going to be at the career fair my college holds each semester. How do I handle a possible exchange with the recruiter?

I received a job offer from this company through the same fair last year when I was a junior. I have worked there part time for nearly a year and have had virtually no contact with HR since I was hired. I will be graduating in May with a BS in Management, my major is human resources. I believe it would be foolish to skip the fair in an effort to avoid an awkward situation, especially under current local job market conditions.

To add more to the situation, this company is currently under a "hiring freeze" until further notice. I suspect their presence at the fair may simply be an effort to continue a relationship with the school so they will have a spot at future events - in past years employers have been turned away from the fair as the university has not had enough space for them to set up booths.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Submitted by basking2 on Saturday February 7th, 2009 3:26 pm

Some Thoughts

Hi DennisR,

I'm not sure I'm comfortable giving you precise advice, but if I may prompt you with some questions, maybe it will help put things into context?

1. Does the freeze prevent you converting to full time or is that viewed as not a "hire" but a normal progression? (eg, Interns sometimes are not affected by downsizes because they are on a particular development track.)

2. Can you ride out the freeze on part time work? Keep / build relationships? If so, will you get hired full time?

3. Is riding it out and getting hired even worth it? Have you built quality relationships you want to keep developing (it's harder if you don't work there)?

4. Could HR give you any reason to put yourself at risk for this job? I doubt they could and, if you get a decent HR guy you could have a very nice conversation. Maybe get a little buzz on what is going on with the rest of the company.

Perhaps this is an aside, but I have no problem sharing a resume with a recruiter at any time during my employment. I make it very clear that I am not looking, I'm happy, but I welcome relationships with people who work in connecting talent.

Hope that prompts some good thoughts. Good luck!

Sam