ONA08 job fair was fun!

I'm not handing out the resumes - yet, but I was in the Online News Association's Job Fair room all morning as an ONA volunteer.

Recruiters from AP, NPR, Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly and others were interviewing folks. (Anyone hired yet?)

Amy Adkins, who coordinated the job fair, is amazingly good with names. Folks who had mailed her resumes for the recruiters would come in and she knew they were on the job fair list without even consulting it. And that was without sleep the night before.

The Q&A on positioning yourself in the marketplace was interesting. Some discussion about copyediting, changing newsrooms and advice - "Get to work on time." I couldn't hear all of the discussion because I was staffing the welcome table right then and answering questions. But I heard that advice loud and clear.

Some lucky ones got to sign up for a one-on-one resume critique by former Detroit Free Press recruiter Joe Grimm, who didn't make the Q&A session because he was working one of his new jobs. He sent a great handout – My Career 2.0, advice for journalists in a changing environment. (Be bold, pick up the pace, be entrepreneurial, be a leader, build networks, and geek out.)

By the way, it wasn't my purse that was lost. I just sent out the announcement on Twitter. Isn't it nice that the purse was found and that job candidate will be able to fly home (yes, her purse had her ID, $$ and credit cards.)

And isn't it nice that folks like Brian Henderson will buy a volunteer a cup of coffee and Reginald Stuart shared info on how someone can own Helen Thomas' White House typewriter. (See http://www.sdxdc.org before Sept 19).

Originally posted in the ONA forum "Discuss the Pre-Conference Workshops"