Taking Advantage of Career Fairs

Career fairs are an excellent place to meet new employers and interview for possible jobs.
But you need to do more than make 20 copies of your resume and have your business
suit cleaned and pressed. You also need a game plan.

✔ Make sure that your resume is well-written and error-free. Generally speaking, you
will want to print out copies (rather than use photocopies) because the quality will
be better.

✔ Read the career fair handout in advance to figure out which companies will be represented.
If possible, do some advance research on those companies so that you can
present yourself intelligently.

✔ Focus on three to five companies that really interest you (rather than trying to cover
the universe of employers). Try to engage the recruiters in an intelligent conversation
about their company goals and priorities.

✔ Prepare a 30-second “elevator speech” to use with recruiters. Basically, this is a
succinct introduction of who you are, what you know how to do, and why you are
interested in them.

✔ When you give recruiters your resume, ask them what the next step in the process
will be. Also, get their business card so that you can follow up with them if, for
some reason, they neglect to follow up with you.