Job Fair

"Job Fair" is the seventeenth episode of the fourth season of The Office and the 70th episode overall. It was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. It was directed by Tucker Gates. It first aired May 8, 2008. It was viewed by 7.22 million people.

Cold open
Michael steps out of his office in his favorite jeans and asks Pam and Oscar to look excited. Darryl then enters the office wearing a tie, explaining he wanted to look presentable, even though Michael is clearly going in a different direction. Michael explains in a talking head that they are going to a job fair to look for interns. Oscar is going as well to recruit for the accounting department, while Pam is going due to the school being her alma mater. Darryl, Michael explains, is recruiting for the warehouse and says the kids that Darryl recruits are probably not going to college. Darryl then asks Michael where he went to college and Michael abruptly claps his hands, shouts "Let's go!" and leaves.

Synopsis
Michael, Pam, Oscar and Darryl set up a booth at a local job fair at Valley View High School, which happens to be Pam's alma mater, to find the "Best and the Brightest" for Dunder Mifflin's summer internship. Meanwhile, Jim hits the links with Andy and Kevin to try and land his biggest sale after receiving a formal warning from Ryan regarding his job performance.

Michael sets up the company's booth at the job fair by placing one sheet of white paper on the table and nothing else. The client Jim is trying to impress, Phil Maguire, suggests they bet on the golf game, which excites Kevin, as he both loves to gamble and proves to be an excellent golfer. Andy, on the other hand, is quite a poor golfer. The employees realize there is no reason for them to be in the office with so many people gone and want to go home. Stanley quietly packs his things and walks out as Dwight becomes outraged that everyone wants to leave.

At the job fair, Michael turns away the only student interested in their booth because he is not the type of person Michael was interested in recruiting. He then gets mad that the student signed his name on the sheet of paper and tells Pam to put out another. Pam only brought one, and when Michael gets mad at her, she points out that he told her to only bring one sheet. Michael pushes the blame back on her and makes her go find another piece of paper.

Jim tries to convince the client to switch paper companies, but Phil is content with the supplier he is using and is not interested in hearing a sales pitch. Michael tries to pull other students in to the booth but no one is interested. Back at the office, Angela and Dwight find themselves alone as the rest of the employees decide to go home.

Pam finds a piece of paper from her old art room and returns to the booth with it, but Michael is mad that it is not Dunder Mifflin paper and makes Pam go back to the office to retrieve another sheet. Meanwhile, Dwight calls Michael with the news that the employees left but Michael agrees that no one should have to be there as both he and Jim are gone and hangs up.

The sales pitch does not seem to be going well for Jim, but he is determined to give it his best shot. After getting shot down again, Andy, in an attempt to be funny, suggests racing to the next hole and crashes the golf cart into a sand trap. Michael becomes disgusted with how well the rest of the booths are doing. Michael tries to re-recruit Justin, the only student who showed an interest in the company, but Justin tells Michael he was a jerk and walks away.

After the golf game, Jim delivers one last desperate sales pitch and Phil finally breaks down and gives Dunder Mifflin his business. As the job fair starts to wrap up, Michael grabs the microphone and, like Jim, delivers one last desperate sales pitch to get anyone to intern at the company, but he gets no takers.

In his final talking head, Michael justifies his failure at the job fair by accepting credit for Jim's success, as Jim chooses to work at Dunder Mifflin.

The final scene shows Pam walking over to a graphic design booth during the job fair and asking for an application. Although Pam is intimidated when the graphic design interviewer lists several programs that she is unfamiliar with, the interviewer states that it should be easy to find adult education programs to help Pam learn them.

Deleted scenes

 * Michael says he's suffering from empty nest syndrome since Ryan left. He calls it that because "That's how I felt when Empty Nest went off the air."
 * In a talking head interview, Michael explains that kids today have a short attention span, preoccupied with texting, video games and sex. And today, they are being distracted by other booths.
 * Michael calls a student to the booth and tries to convince him that Dunder Mifflin is a lot of fun. Pam arrives with the paper, and Michael points out that the student could look at Pam all day. He gives the student the paper and says he can keep it. Pam is stunned.
 * Michael tries to convince that student (who is clearly not interested) that Dunder Mifflin is a fun, sexy place. The student manages to escape, but Michael follows him. The student goes to the bathroom and is disturbed to find Michael waiting outside for him. The student finally tells Michael directly that he doesn't want to waste his life "selling paper for your stupid company".
 * Kevin anticipates that the winnings from the golf game will help cover his gambling debts.
 * Jim confides that inviting Andy was a calculated move: The client hates Cornell.
 * Andy tries to break his golf club over his knee in frustration. Mr. Maguire says, "Guy’s kind of a douche." Jim answers, "Yeah, well, you know... Cornell." The two share a quiet laugh.
 * Pam sees a picture of Roy in the school's trophy case, along with many accolades from his time on the football team. She says, "Nine years of my life."
 * A female student chooses to be the intern at Dunder Mifflin, but is stopped by Oscar. He lies by saying the position was filled and that she should do something that she really wants to do. He later states he "couldn't do that to a little girl", meaning wasting her life selling paper like him.

Peacock released additional deleted scenes from this episode:


 * Michael screams "Nooo!" from the bathroom, and Dwight rushes to his rescue. Michael comes out and explains that his cell phone fell into the toilet, and while bending over to get it, his "gluetooth" fell in, followed by his wallet, his tip calculator, his candy corn, and white strips. Dwight presents all of Michael's things on a towel. Jim asks, "And your keys fell in?" Michael replies, "I threw the keys in out of anger." Michael proclaims, "This cannot happen again!" Dwight notes, "That's what you said last time," and Phyllis starts laughing. Michael insists that it isn't funny, but Dwight notes that this is literally "toilet humor" which Michael claims to find funny. Michael realizes "This is the best thing that ever happened to me" and goes to his office. He returns with his new invention: It's a tennis racket head with the handle cut off, with a toilet scrubber attached. "It goes where you go." Nobody wants to try it. In a talking head interview, Creed says, "Add a handle to that puppy and you've got yourself a tennis racket." Watch it.

Trivia

 * B.J. Novak (Ryan Howard) and Paul Lieberstein (Toby Flenderson) are credited but do not appear in this episode. Lieberstein was busy writing the next episode, "Goodbye, Toby".
 * Aside from Dunder Mifflin itself, the booths at the job fair are real organizations:
 * Stage left: (office supplies), Simplex Homes,
 * Stage right: Electric City magazine, Dunder Mifflin Scranton, (tax preparation)
 * Back wall: Pennstar Bank, the Hilton Scranton & Conference Center, Allegheny Rent-A-Car, Starlight Models
 * Other aisle, stage left: The, RJG (Rosenn Jenkins & Greenwald LLP, Attorneys at Law)
 * Other aisle, stage right: Care Givers America (Clarks Summit), Frank M. Regan Funeral Home, Solid Cactus (e-commerce), L. R. Constanzo Construction, the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, and Lamar Advertising.
 * Actor Trevor Einhorn (Justin) is better-known to American television audiences as, son of from the television situation comedy . (No relation to The Office Director of Photography Randall Einhorn.)
 * Actor Charlie McDermott (unnamed student who stops by the table briefly) is better-known as Axl Heck on .
 * Andy, Kevin, and Phil Maguire (the client) all use the Odyssey White Hot XG 2 Ball Center Shaft Putter.
 * The deleted scenes make it clearer that Jim brought Andy on purpose, knowing that he would annoy Mr. Maguire. Jim and Mr. Maguire could then bond over a common enemy.
 * The graphic design company representative that Pam meets with was played by Nelson Franklin, the same actor who portrays Nick the I.T. Guy when Sabre takes over in Season 6.

Connections to other episodes

 * Pam tells the intern candidate, Justin, "We uh eat a lot of cake." In the episode "Survivor Man", we learn that every employee in the office gets an individual birthday cake.
 * Michael previously used the "And don't call me Shirley" joke with Jan in "Valentine's Day". But in that episode, he used it correctly.
 * Jim and Pam share a polite handshake even though they would rather kiss - and after already sharing a kiss. In "The Return", Dwight and Angela share a polite handshake even though they would rather kiss.
 * Pam tells the camera that she has fond memories from her high school years in the gym, including "pretending to have PMS to get out of volleyball."
 * In a deleted scene, Dwight holds the items that fell out of Michael's pocket into the toilet, including his bedazzled wallet, previously seen in "Chair Model".
 * In a deleted scene, Dwight holds the items that fell out of Michael's pocket into the toilet, including his bedazzled wallet, previously seen in "Chair Model".

Amusing details

 * Kevin once again gambles with petty cash. His penchant for gambling was previously established in the Webisode Things Are Getting Tense.
 * Stanley leaves smiling while Dwight warns everyone not to leave early. Stanley previously laughed in amusement when Dwight is sent by Michael to fire him in "Halloween".
 * Michael tells Justin that he could be a migraine worker. He likely meant migrant worker.
 * Andy squirts lubricant into his gloves because of his blisters. Lubricant is meant to be applied beforehand or in small amounts after blisters have formed.
 * Michael appears to look up with recollection when Pam recounts how he went "Pam! Pam! Pam!" during his request of only one sheet of paper. Pam's jaw drops at Michael's blatant lie that he doesn't remember.
 * Andy says he hated golf lessons as a kid, "just like everyone else". He thinks everyone gets golf lessons in their childhood.
 * Creed says he finished his work months ago. In "Product Recall", Creed reveals that as Quality Assurance he is supposed to spend 4 hours each week at the paper mill, but only does so once a year instead.
 * Andy struggles to hold his beer bottle due to his blisters. He opts to drink from a straw instead.
 * Michael once again projects his personal issues onto his task, in this case he uses the Job Fair as reassurance that he made the right choice to work at Dunder Mifflin. At the end of the episode he takes solace that he did make the right choice since Jim still chooses to work with him.
 * Phil happily invites Jim and Kevin to join him in future golf sessions, but not Andy.

Goofs

 * Justin signs his name on the paper as "Justin E", even though the character's last name is Paulsnik. Actor Trevor Einhorn accidentally signed his own last name.
 * Pam returns to the office for a sheet of card stock, but she takes it from the copy machine. It is very unusual to use card stock in a copy machine. However, it did appear to be heavy duty paper when she held it up. Also, it was from a lower drawer of the copier where paper other than standard 20 pound may be kept.
 * Andy's hands are fully healed when he is playing air guitar when Jim and Pam kiss despite being covered in blisters and sores at the golf course earlier that day.

Behind the scenes

 * The job fair was filmed at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys. Part of the agreement was that all of the school logos, signs, and artwork had to be covered.
 * The golf scenes were filmed at Vista Valencia Golf Course in Santa Clarita.
 * In the original script, there was a cold open: Everyone in the office groans when they hear Michael screaming from the bathroom. Michael comes out and explains that he dropped everything in his pockets into the toilet: His cell phone, his tip calculator, his wallet, his white strips, candy corn, and his eraser. Jim asks, "What about your car keys?" Michael replies, "I threw them into the toilet out of anger." Michael has a realization and goes to his office. He returns with his new invention: A mesh cover to go over the toilet, to catch anything that would fall in. The camera reveals that Michael had cut the mesh back of his desk chair.
 * This episode gave the writers an opportunity to try out new character combinations. One group went to the job fair, another went to the golf course, and the rest stayed at the office.
 * The writers considered sending Dwight to the job fair (where he would interact with the students) or adding him to Jim's golf foursome (where he was eventually kicked out and played golf with a bunch of old ladies instead) before deciding on the smaller Dwight/Angela story.
 * LaVerne Caracuzzi-Milazzo, head of the make-up department, conducted research on the proper placement and look of golf blisters. The creation of the fake blisters took between 20 and 30 minutes.
 * According to Lee Eisenberg, Jim invited Kevin to the golf outing because he wanted a foursome, and his choices were rather limited.
 * Brian Baumgartner is an accomplished golfer, with a handicap of 7.6. He likes to gamble on golf because it makes him focus better.
 * The show gave everyone golf lessons so they could act convincingly. Ed Helms enjoyed it so much that he took up golfing as a hobby. John Krasinski also enjoys playing golf, but he admits that he's really bad at it.
 * All of the actors portraying students were told to act like they were having a great time, smiling, and being full of energy at every booth except Dunder Mifflin's.
 * The idea behind Pam's visit to the art classroom was that one of her pieces was put on display when she was a student. Immediately after mentioning to the camera that she's looking for it, she is embarrassed that she thought the piece would still be there a decade later, and it reminds her that her dreams of an art career have been on hold for so long.
 * Steve Carell kicked a foam basketball, so that nobody would get hurt.
 * The school administrator who announces the end of the job fair is played by Lori Murphy Saux, the show's female stand-in.

Cultural references

 * Michael says that he wants to youthanize the office, a made-up word combining "youth" and the verb suffix "-ize". He inadvertently says the word "euthanize", meaning "to kill in a humane way."
 * is located in Archbald, Pennsylvania, about nine miles north of Scranton.
 * Kelly tells Darryl, "You look like ." Obama was a leading presidential candidate at the time the episode aired.
 * Andy mentions his grandfather spinning in his urn. The idiom "spinning in one's grave" is used to describe a situation which would have made a dead person furious if they were still alive. Andy adapts this idiom to accommodate the fact that his grandfather was cremated.
 * Andy refers to the client as a Dartmouth boy. is a university in, a member of the  of prestigious universities (which includes Cornell University) in the Northeast United States. (Incidentally, writer/actor Mindy Kaling went to Dartmouth.) The two schools have a longstanding.
 * Kevin lists several golf betting games: Skins, Acey Deucey, Bingo-Bango-Bongo, Sandies, Barkies, Arnies, and Wolf.
 *  (known as PMT in British English) is short for "Premenstrual syndrome", a collection of adverse symptoms tied to a woman's menstrual cycle.
 * Dwight says the American workday ends at 5pm. The traditional American workday runs from 9am to 5pm.
 * Junk mail is an informal term for unwanted advertisements received in the mail.
 * Michael blames Dateline for his lack of success at the job fair.  is a television news magazine known for its "" segment which identifies child sexual predators.
 * Michael suggests that Justin could be a migraine worker. He means "migrant worker."
 * Michael says "And don't call me Shirley," repeating a joke from the movie . His use of the joke is incorrect, however, since Pam merely said "Are you serious?" instead of "Surely you can't be serious."
 * Michael describes Justin as the ugly girl in the movie, who takes off her glasses and she's hot! And you realize she was always hot, she was just wearing glasses. This is a movie cliche, a special case of the Beautiful All Along cliche.
 * Michael derides the job fair as , originally a derogatory term for the minor leagues of professional baseball, but which has entered general use as slang for "substandard."
 * When Pam and Jim kiss, Kevin and Andy add musical accompaniment in a style.
 * The graphic designer lists a variety of computer graphic software: ', ', ', ', and .
 *  classes are non-credit evening classes typically offered by small colleges to adults in the community.
 * Michael kicks a ball like Nick Nolte in the 1994 movie .
 * In a deleted scene, Michael admits to suffering from, but explains that it's the feeling he got when "" went off the air. The television comedy "Empty Nest" is about a retired widower whose two adult children return to live with him.
 * In the deleted cold open, Michael says that his "gluetooth" fell into the toilet, referring to his headset.
 * Other things that fell into the toilet were Michael's "tip calculator", used to calculate the for various types of services in the United States, most commonly restaurant service. It appears to be a pocket calculator. He also dropped pieces of, a type of candy popular during the  season, and his "white strips", referring to  strips.
 * Dwight says that what Michael experienced was "", a term for humor related to feces, urine, and so on. Michael argues that what he experienced was "toilet tragedy", a made-up term.
 * Michael says, "Out of great tragedy is the mother of invention", messing up the adage that "."

Main cast

 * Steve Carell as Michael Scott
 * Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute
 * John Krasinski as Jim Halpert
 * Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly
 * B.J. Novak as Ryan Howard

Supporting cast

 * Ed Helms as Andy Bernard
 * Leslie David Baker as Stanley Hudson
 * Brian Baumgartner as Kevin Malone
 * Creed Bratton as Creed Bratton
 * Kate Flannery as Meredith Palmer
 * Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor
 * Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin
 * Oscar Nunez as Oscar Martinez
 * Craig Robinson as Darryl Philbin
 * Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Vance

Guest cast

 * Phil Reeves as Phil Maguire
 * Emerson Brooks as Air Force Recruiter
 * Trevor Einhorn as Justin Polznik
 * Charlie McDermott as Student
 * Lori Murphy Saux as school administrator

Recurring cast

 * Nelson Franklin as Graphic Design Guy
 * Elvy Yost as Megan (deleted scene)