Dress right, bring resumes, prepare in advance, network—all good pieces of advice when it comes to attending job fairs. But there’s more you need to know.
Attending a career fair seems relatively straightforward. You treat it like a job interview, but with a few dozen employers instead of just one.
Naturally, you dress your best, take along several copies of your resume, and you prepare to spend the next hour or two visiting booths after booth trying to talk company representatives into hiring you. Sounds great, right? It can be if you know how to make career and job fairs work for you.
Getting Inside the Head of the Recruiter
Companies that send representatives to attend job fairs do it for various reasons: to generate name recognition for their company, educate fair attendees about their firm, and collect resumes for potential future openings. And, yes, they even screen potential job candidates for current openings quickly.
Bear in mind that you are fighting for their attention with hundreds of other possibilities. It implies you have a limited amount of time to establish a favorable first impression. A company may not be ready to hire you now in a fair job situation, but tomorrow, you need to stay fresh in their mind long after the event’s doors have closed.
Be forceful but courteous to create an excellent first impression. Of course, you want to have your 15 seconds in the spotlight, but not at the expense of other candidates or by bullying your way to the front of the line. And when it’s your turn, make it count. Shake hands, state your name clearly, and ask your best question.
Choose the Right Career Fair
Job fairs come in many forms. So deciding which one(s) you will attend is essential in making sure you spend your time wisely.
First, the big generic job fairs attract many local employers and many local talents. Therefore, they are not a wrong time investment; however, you are less likely to find employment explicitly geared to you because they encompass a wide range of industries and careers.
On the other hand, there are career fairs that offer a more narrowly defined focus, such as the job fairs for older workers discussed in Carol Finch’s Jobuza article, “How Can AARP Career Fairs Help Seniors Find Work?” Or the diversity job fairs – for women, minorities, GLBT, and candidates with disabilities – put on by Vault.com. One explicitly geared toward the financial sector is coming up on September 23 in New York City.
You may even go virtual, a decision that is gaining popularity. For instance, in the article, “Veteran-Friendly Job Resources to Ease Vets Back into Job Market,” veterans and their families can gain access to vet-specific virtual job fairs, while professional organizations such as SAE International.
Whichever you choose – virtual or face-to-face – you’ll find a wide range of job fair choices just by using any job search engine to conduct a search using “job fairs” plus the name of your city and “virtual job fairs.”
Avail Yourself of Opportunities
More and more often, career fairs, both virtual and face-to-face, are offering – even requiring – attendees to pre-register. The benefit to the host is in gaining an estimated headcount of attendees. The advantage to attendees is that pre-registering very often requires submitting your resume. It provides employers with the opportunity to preview your background and, in some cases, even to arrange pre-set interviews.
Keep in mind before you go, you should have a list of questions you want to be answered. Non-generic questions about what jobs are available and how much they pay, but questions on why you may want to work for a company. Company representatives wish to candidates who demonstrate knowledge of their organization and/or industry, have intelligent questions to ask, and think about how they might fit into their firm.
And don’t forget to grab business cards. Note on the back any specific details pertinent to your conversation, including the date and where you met, and then follow up afterward with a letter of thanks along with a piece of information the representative might find helpful or interesting. It’s a great way to solidify your interest in their company.
Whether they are called job fairs or career expos, virtual or face-to-face, specific or generic, you can learn how to make them work for you if you do things right.
