Career Fairs

I went to the 2007 Biotech Career Fair co-hosted by UCSF and ScienceCareers today to see if I could drum up some interest in JeffsBench. While I wasn't very productive in getting the word out, I did notice some interesting things about career fairs. My first observation is that there are A LOT of scientists out there trying to get or thinking about getting a job in industry. I was amazed at how many people there were at this event. My second observation is that career fairs need a system. The lines to talk to someone from HR at each of these companies had anywhere from 30 to over 50 people in them. Each companies' table had maybe two people there, and the lines seemed to move incredibly slow. I know that there are career fairs like this all over the country. My question is, do they work? I don't know what a better solution would be, but the giant lines just can't be the best way to do this. From speaking with a number of hopeful applicants, it didn't seem they thought it was the best use of their time either. I would love to hear comments from people that: 1) have gotten a job from a career fair or 2) have ideas on how to make them more beneficial.