Tuesday, August 05, 2008
There were nearly no IT-type jobs; then again, there wasn't a large number of jobs to begin with
I was not in the best of moods. I had gotten up way too early, driven about an hour south only to face a large teeming crowd and a convention center that was a designated Pepsi Zone (ptuey!). And I wasn't relishing waiting in the infinite line for the résumé workshop.
Spring had suggested that Wlofie and I attend the Jobing.com Career Expo at the Broward County Convention Center. As we drove into Port Everglades, a person standing outside the gates informed us drivers to get our IDs ready. I asked, rhetorically, what exactly is the purpose of showing ID?
“Security theater,” said Wlofie.
Pretty much what I thought.
Anyway, by the time we got up to the gate, the guard inside just waved us through without bothering to ask us for our IDs.
So much for securing our ports through security theater.
Registration was a simple process, since we had pre-registered online and
had our boarding entry pass ready. We exchanged the entry pass
for a three page glossy brochure that doubled as our ticket into the expo.
It was at this point that I went off in search of caffeine. I approached one of the food stalls outside the main exhibit
hall.
“I'd like a Coke please,” I said.
“No Coke! Pepsi!”
“Excuse me?”
“No Coke! Pepsi! End of line with you! Next!”
Well then. The food stall was near the résumé workshop, and the line ran down the front hallway.
“Let's walk around the exhibit hall,” I said. “I can't believe I got out of bed for this.”
I was …
underwhelmed … with the exhibit hall. The exhibit booths, a bunch of
10′×10′ areas demarcated by cloth curtains, covered an
area perhaps 150′×100′. This isn't necessarily that bad,
except the exhibit hall itself was 274′×237′, leaving
quite a bit of floor space exposed. It made for a rather sad looking job
expo.
We wandered about the place for perhaps an hour. Highlights:
- No one was staffing the US Customs and Border Patrol booth, which I found funny because the Broward County Convention Center is at Port Everglades, a port. I guess everyone was busy inspecting containers or something.
- The Jobing.com people, easily identifiable due to the uniforms, were walking around the expo with Secret Service-esque ear pieces and talking into their collars.
- A woman perhaps in her late 40s/early 50s, milling about the US Army booth, was determined to ask if she could join up.
By this time, I was getting hungry so we headed off to
the concession stand at the back of the hall.
“May I help you?”
“Yes, I'll take the cheeseburger and chips, with a Coke,” I said. Hey, it couldn't hurt to ask.
“I'm sorry, but we only have Pepsi.”
“Oh. Iced tea then.”
“I'm sorry, but we're out of that.”
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
$10 for a cheeseburger (sans tomato and onion mind you), a bag of chips and bottled water.
After lunch, we spent nearly two hours in line for the résumé workshop, and while I can't say it was worth the wait, I did get some valuable feedback on my résumé. The woman looking it over was a bit overwhelmed with it actually. She said that with my current employment history and skill set, I should drop the dates, work on my “Objectives” paragraph (it currently reads “To obtain an exciting job in the fast-pased Computer Industry utilizing my unique skillsets.” When I wrote that, I had no idea what to write; my intention was to change that at some later point but I never got around to it) and add a section on my core strengths (and that doesn't include C programming and Unix administration, but more like “smart,” “tenacity,” etc).
She also suggested, after looking over the long list of systems I've worked on, that I should brand myself and include a “tag line,” something like “I don't do Windows.”
Interesting idea.
After that, it was time to leave, and thankfully, I was able to utilize the HOV lane on I-95 on the way back to Casa New Jersey, as it was the height of rush hour traffic.
