Attending Career Fairs
You've seen them on tv, maybe even participated in one yourself: the speed dating event, where singles in search of love gather for 10-minute "dates" with each other. You have 10 minutes to make an impression, a connection, determine whether you have any potential with this person, whether he or she sees anything in you. Will you click? Will you bomb?
In odd ways, the Job Fair concept resembles the speed dating phenomenon.
Several times annually, VT's Career Services sponsors on-campus Job Fairs designed to bring a number of employers together in a single location. One day is devoted to students in the humanities and related fields, while another focuses on engineering majors. Recently, the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences has sponsored its own such fair, with employers who are searching specifically for students schooled in the liberal arts.
A LIST OF UPCOMING FAIRS WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON
Regardless of which organization, department, college, or entity sponsors it, though, a job fair offers essentially the same features: a finite number of potential employers with a finite number of jobs; eager potential employees, each of whom might have an impressive job packet; and a limited amount of time to make a good impression.
How do you succeed? Here are some tips you might consider:
Do Your Homework
Before you visit the Job Fair, check out the inevitable web site devoted to it, which generally will list not only the employers slated to attend but also the sort of positions for which they are hiring.
- Carefully browse through the list. Check even those employers that might seem unlikely to offer the sort of job for which you're looking. After all, municipal police departments often have public relations departments and need writers to staff them!
- Select those employers with whom you'd like to speak. Make a list. Review it. Learn it.
- Research the employers on your list by any means possible: library, internet, blogs, networks of friends. Try to find out as much as possible about the employer before you step up to the table in front of him or her (or them). This shows that you have an interest in the company, that it's not simply a matter of "Wow, I need a job, and anyplace will do."
Create an Impressive Portfolio (uh, and bring it!)
Don't just bring a one-page resume printed on flimsy paper. Instead, create an actual portfolio that for each employer on your target list includes
- At least two copies of your resume.
- A cover letter (whether or not you'll be asked for it; it's a "just in case" thing!).
- Letters of recommendation (3 is the standard number).
Also, bring a notebook -- a nice one, not the one in which you take notes for Chemistry class! -- into which you can jot notes. This you keep. Everything else (hopefully) you will give away!
Get There Early and Stay Late
Like a good party, a Job Fair is something at which you'll want to hang around. Okay, so you managed to avoid 8 a.m. classes for four entire years of college, but if the fair starts at 8 -- well, you get the picture. As the day progresses, the crowd gets bigger, so if you're there early you have a better chance of making your resume and your face known. Then you can hang around or return later in the day for base-touching: return to tables you visited earlier, sit for interviews, etc.
Dress Like You Mean It
When you're sitting in McBryde 100 for that enormous lecture class, you couldn't be wearing anything more comfy than sweats and sneakers, even the occasional pair of pajama bottoms. But what if you plan to leave that class to visit the Job Fair?
Dress like a potential employee, not like a college student. If you're a guy, wear a nice suit, a blazer and tie, or at the very least a nice Oxford shirt and a tie (pants NOT optional). If you're a gal, wear a nice suit of any sort (dress or pants) or a simple dress.
When you get home, your jammies will be waiting. They will have missed you, but they will also forgive you.
Move It Around
"Okay, I'm here at the Job Fair. Do I get in line? Yikes, it's like I'm getting a new Hokie Passport. Is that guy in front of me ever going to give it up? What's taking so long?"
If you stand in line, you're liable to end up there for a looong time. That's why you get there early -- before the real lines develop -- and why you mill around. Again, a Job Fair is kind of like a party: if you sit in the corner, you're not going to have a good time. Get up. Walk around. Start conversations (real ones). If you see an employer in need (a spilled Coke, a broken pen, anything you can fix), jump to the rescue in a friendly manner--and it will not be construed as "sucking up."
Prepare to Follow Up
Once the fair is over, you still have the chance to impress your potential employer: send a thank-you letter for the interview in which you reiterate your interest in the job and recount your specific skills and abilities.