Last week my boss came in at 8 a.m and asked me to go home, change and go across town to a Military Job Fair and find more people with potential. In the year I’ve worked at my current employer it was the first day I got to wear jeans to work so I was somewhat disappointed. I went home changed into my slacks, put on the company shirt and headed out the door. This was actually my first job fair, I had never attended one myself so I wasn’t sure what to expect but I knew I’d be talking to quite a few people. I found the booth my company had and talked to the HR Recruiter for a few minutes trying to get an idea of what else we were looking for and the general approach.
I stood in front of my booth for about 6 hours talking to people, and watching the crowd and I made some observations while I was there. It was an interesting mix of people attending and an even more interesting mix of personalities. The following are 5 tips to make your next visit to a job fair a success!
First Appearances
These days a suit isn’t entirely necessary but it’s always a great impression. Remember many of the booth workers at the job fairs are recruiters that work in human resources. Does that mean a first impression isn’t necessary? Of course not, these people are trying to fill positions and do not want to make a bad hiring decision. Your best bet for a job fair is either a suit, or slacks, a button down shirt and a tie. I actually saw one person wearing baggy jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of timberland boots without the laces tied. His resume was circular filed… meaning we threw it in the trash right after he walked away.
Bring Resumes
Many companies are hiring for certain positions immediately. If you made a strong impression during your exchange with a booth operator we may want to take notes about your availability, experience or something else. When working a job fair we see dozens of people an hour, so there is a chance your name and exchange with us will fade in our memory. Another aspect of having hard copies of your resume will allow a booth operator to place your resume on a different stack. You may have ended up in the call tomorrow pile if you hand us a hard copy. If you don’t have a hard copy we will not receive your resume until you send it to us and as stated already our memory may have faded.
Arrive Early
Arriving early gives you a crowd advantage as well as a position advantage. Although there are many booths with short lines any large company will usually have a big crowd. When arriving early you can scout the area and get a feel for where things are and where companies are located. Arriving early gives you an advantage at the large company booths because you will beat the crowd and may end up more time to talk to representatives. Saving your visit for the end of the day is generally a bad idea. The job fair I attended closed at 3 p.m but many of the companies were leaving between 1:30 and 2:00. If you were planning on skipping out of work early to attend you may just end up walking into a vacant convention center.
Be Assertive
This goes along with first impressions. If you attend a job fair and just walk around your chances of obtaining employment are relatively low. This is something I noticed about people at the job fair, some just walked around and stood about 10 feet away from the booth reading the backdrop while others walked right up to us and started asking the questions. At job fairs, even if you are a strong introvert it will be necessary to be assertive and initiate conversations.
Ask Questions
Asking questions serves many purposes. You want to find out the size of a company, the various types of positions available et cetera. We had many people come up to us and ask what positions were available for a <fill in career path>. Many times we would reply, well we are just IT, however we are accepting x number of entry levels for this. Many times it was something of interest to a person who never really considered it as a career path. Positions filled and jobs obtained… all with a few questions. Just because a company does not deal primarily with what your career path is, they may still have some interesting positions you could start in.
Job fairs offer a wide exposure to companies in your area and also offer great networking opportunities. If you make the most of the job fairs your going to get a lot out of them. Being prepared will give you an additional step towards that job you’ve always wanted.
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Good advice, I’ve been to a few different career fairs and agree with a lot of the observations you had. The main thing is to be active. Try to make a list of what companies you definitely want to talk to, and maybe a few that you just saw and seem interesting. Having a game plan and sticking to it will also save time and will help you mentally want to become more active. I like your tip on asking questions because finding out more information can help you, and for an employer, they always like the people who are most interested in them.
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
This is great advice! Job fairs can be very overwhelming, but it important to stay focused as they can be very beneficial as well. I work for a staffing company in Boston, Hollister Staffing (www.hollisterstaff.com) and think job fairs can be very rewarding if you are assertive and prepared. You’re advice to be assertive is great too, it’s really the only way to be successful at these events.
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[...] 5 Tips for Job Fair Success. Eric at Twenties Money Mag offers some simple but highly valuable tips for making the most out of job fairs, which I find are often only as good as you make them. [...]