Stopped applying to jobs through the career fair booth line and started emailing the recruiter directly after the event, way better response rate

Standing in a fifteen-person line to hand someone a resume they'll never look at twice felt like theater. Started instead noting names off badges, finding the recruiter on LinkedIn that evening, and sending a short specific note referencing something from the actual conversation we'd had. Maybe four minutes of extra effort per company. Response rate went from basically zero to getting real replies from about half of them. The fair still helped, just not in the way it's designed to.