By Pan Yan

While crashing a job fair held at Wuhan University on December 22, Zhang Yuxiang, a law junior at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, beat out the competing bustles of seniors and grads and was offered a contract with a large media company in Wuhan.

However, Zhang had to turn it down. He had to graduate.

In recent years, already crowded job fairs are no longer exclusive to seniors seeking employment contracts (which are crucial in getting their diplomas out of hock from university administrators). College kids are also haunting fairs to take a few warm-up swings at the plate and trying their hand at the real world job chase.

Sun Chao, a junior at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Zhongshan Institute in Guangdong Province has already been to six recruitment fairs this year.

"Next year I'll start looking for a job, but I think it's better to get a feel for what recruitment fairs are like," Sun said.

Liu Jian, an international business senior at Zhejiang Normal University, was nicknamed "job fair lunatic" because he constantly attended all through his college years.

"When I started school, my father told me how fierce the competition was and asked me to get ready early. I didn't have to take too many classes during freshman year and most fairs were held on the weekends, so I had time," Liu said.

"I went to nearly 20 fairs in three years, either held by my or other schools in Zhejiang, Shanghai and Jiangxi. Going to these fairs has given me more confidence. If I'm interested in a job, even if I'm not qualified, at least I'll give it a try," added Liu.

Recently Liu was hired by Asia-Pacific Commodity Co Ltd in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province and gives credit to his experience of attending many fairs.

"Because I've gone to so many, I've met a lot of HR people and they've clued me in on what kind of personnel they're looking for," explained Liu. "Most require good English, both written and spoken. So I put lots of emphasis on studying English in my university years. Also, you can't make one resume for all, but have to tailor it for different jobs."

Most juniors interviewed had nothing but praises for teething their job hunt fangs on career fairs, but Ouyang Hui, a senior HR advisor at chinahr. com, warned that this might be a waste of time.

"Even if students can find jobs then, how can they guarantee they can find jobs when they graduate?" explained Ouyang.

"Of course, some have accomplished a lot, but I still believe that most seniors are more competitive than juniors of the same major," he added.