I have 17 years of consulting experience, and recently I attended a “by-invite job fair” by BofA. This job fair ran for 3 days with 2 sessions/day. Approx 30 invitees per session. Invitees were selected based on an initial phone (non-technical) screening followed by face to face (F-2-F).
F-2-F was the real "by invite job fair" in a hotel, snacks/drinks were provided during the session. Interviews were rotational style and each candidate had to undergo 4 interviews(30 mins). Total time for this session was around 3.5 hours.
3 interviews were non-technical and 1 was technical. Technical interview was conducted by a young Indian software engineer (may be 5 years’ experience). This guy had a very peculiar way of conducting interview. He carried a bunch of papers (with a list of questions), after every question he would scramble through his notes/papers and find out the next question. The experience was surreal and I kept thinking why am I wasting my time. I couldn't figure out how an organization could send some one who is not prepared .
Throughout the session I felt that BofA was not really interested in hiring, but was doing this for some kind of PR or Tax saving.
There is something called - Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), a corporate tax credit provided by the federal government.
NOT sure how this WOTC works, but on a separate note I got a similar "by-invite job fair” from Chase bank too and they have asked me to fill this online WOTC form.
For me , I have learned my lesson at BofA, so not participating any more scams.
Has anyone else attended such a job fair at BofA or Chase ? and what were your experience ? I sincerely believe that no one ever gets selected from such job fairs.