I did something stupid today. I went to a "technology" job fair. I'm not sure why I thought this made sense. I thought it would somehow be productive to walk up to random recruiters, ask if they had any low-level software positions, and if so then give them my resume and maybe converse a little.
It turns out some companies at a "technology" fair aren't even looking for software (despite it's very widespread prevalence in the world of "technology"), or if they are then they're looking to fill very specific positions sometimes requiring X years of experience in Y. Also, some of the recruiters have no idea what the word "embedded" might mean. I'm not sure if they understand "device driver" or "kernel" either.
Here's what I don't understand. Why go to the trouble of crowding 50 companies into a room, only 4 of which might actually be interesting and only 1 of those 4 of which might actually have a job I want? Sure, there's a chance for a quick on-the-spot interview, but it really doesn't seem worth the trouble. How about each of those companies post detailed descriptions of their open positions on some job web site on the Internet, candidates take as much time as they need to read the descriptions then send in their resumes, and the companies take as much time as they need to read the resumes then call the people they like. Yes, I like this much better. Job fairs are a waste of time.