The job fair was not very successful. In fact it was "almost" a waste of my time. Most of the available positions were for dynamic and hard-working young bucks, not old-farts like myself. What a bomb. Had some interesting talks though with a number of individuals, but when I mentioned that I was keen on more senior roles, I was greeted by droves of heads shaking back and forth. No sorry no sorry see you later. I found this very strange. You see, each of the booths had a number of colored stickers on the side telling the passersby what kind of positions were available. Red meant marketing, blue meant finance and green mean IT (information technology). So this is typically how it went most of the time:

"Hi there, I see that you are looking for qualified IT professionals," pointing to the green sticker over there. No we do not have any positions for you available at this time. "So why the green sticker over there then?" Oh that sticker, well that was the situation four weeks ago. Things have changed. "Oh I see, so it is not going that well with your company anymore." Not well? You must be kidding. It has never been better! "Well, do you mind if I leave my resume behind just in case?" No not at all, that would be very nice, thank you. "Yeah, thanks alot."

Why do people have to lie in order to keep giving the false impression that everything is going along so well? Seems that in times of economic stagnation, companies are not willing to hire more experienced professionals like me because of higher salaries. The truth is that hiring a bunch of young bucks, while at lower salaries, will in the long run cost them much much more. Inexperience combined with required training combined with lack of leadership can cost a company an arm and a leg and another arm. Alright, so it is time to go and continue elsewhere. Time to start looking around for something else to do in the meantime. Fixing the washing machine, replacing lamps and ironing my shirts, bringing back the latest video before closing time, and other similar activities.