Do you see value in participating in military job fairs?

Hey, George, it is always a pleasure to see your questions and posts. As an attendee of several career fairs, all after my transition from active duty and in serious search of suitable work, several key points arose. First, signing up for the job fair put a crystal clear point on the objective for writing resumes, preparing, proofing, printing and marketing the document itself. Second, the larger event activites created that sense of urgency and became an assignment and goal to achieve. Third, it provided a forum for testing the waters on the elevator pitch, discussing my own strengths and marketing my potential, and clarifying what I wanted to do (as well as discovering some things I did NOT want to do!).

Most importantly, it was a networking tool. I met great recruiters like you, found in-roads to a wide spectrum of companies, met up with other like-minded candidates (old friends who I had not seen in years), and ultimately will very likely get hired because I attended the job fair. Because we "don't know what we don't know," learning more about companies that send recruiters to job fairs shaped my search efforts.

Certainly my interviewing skills have been strengthened because of preparation and applying "OJT" principles on how to search for a civilian job. They are the crucible and "practical exercise" that the transition programs seek to prepare us for in the various service pre-separation job assistance requirements. Good question - I say "Yes!" as the final answer.

Prior to my retirement I went to a few, but at the time most of the business' were defense contractors looking for security personnel to go to Iraq. Looking back I am glad that I did not take any of those jobs based on the reputations they have after the combat role was removed.
The only problem with the job fairs is that they are looking for people to start in a month or two. Most of the booths (almost all) would only hand you a business card or brochure if you had longer than 3 months in service left.
Overall in my experience it was a complete waste of time, but that does not mean there is not value to be found in them. I don't see any great networking value in it, but I did see value in the opportunity for military personnel to just see what is out there.