UMD

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Recently as part of my summer job we had to go and run a booth at a job fair. They sent me along because I am the student temp and I guess I would be the one that is most like those attending the job fair. We had talked about what kinds of ways we would like to promote the job and what ways we could market it to students. I told them about the booths I had seen that interested me the most at all of the job fairs I've seen here on campus. We took all of our ideas and gave them to a graphic designer here in the office and she put together a poster and a video which were meant to show all of our responsibilities and things that might entice people to work here.

We also took along with us some pretty cool stuff. My boss didn't want to have to give away anything but I told him that the jobs I am considering the most and the ones my friends are considering the most are those that gave them some tradeshow giveaway items at the start. I told him that it is also great for us because these students walk around campus and they go to parties wearing our logo merchandise. This may not appeal to the buying market in the student population, especially since we sell paper and they don't really need it. It makes a lot more sense that these promotional products would be just that. They would put our name out there and keep it in the minds of the job seekers and the future workers of other companies. It is all just a matter of making our name and logo on promotional gifts a name that people recognize. They don't even need to know what we sell but when they see it again they will ask questions and if that happens to be on the internet then we make money. The more people frequent our web site the better off everyone is.

Now that I have been on this end of the job fair as well, I know exactly why people give away so much stuff that I never thought would benefit them. Now I see that they have been tricking me all along as well.