Career and Job Training Readiness Center

Got a job fair coming up in your area soon?  Take steps now to get ready.  You can use this event to best advantage if you lay groundwork now.

If you can find out what companies are going to be represented, do some advance research to learn about the ones that might have call for your skills.  If you can find out a bit about each company’s history, current products, operations, or administration, you’ll be one step up on the competition.

Go prepared for mini-interviews.  Take lots of copies of your resume and business cards.  Leave an impression that you are organized and business like, and company execs will be more likely to give you a call after the fair.

Dress for success.  Make sure you treat this experience as formally as you would any interview.  The old saying that you only get one chance to make a first impression is very true.  Touch up that haircut, wear clothes that are neat and clean, and put your best foot forward.  Be sure to take several folders and other organizational tools so that you can keep track of any literature that you may pick up.

Finally, well ahead of your event, create what’s called an ‘elevator speech.’  This is a short (30-60 second) set of sentences that summarizes your best qualities and how hiring you would be advantageous to the company.  Focus on your strengths, encapsulate your previous experiences, and end with how you could be an asset to the company.  Practice your speech on friends and family until you are comfortable with it and it no longer sounds rehearsed.

As you visit each company’s display, find out if you can leave a resume.  See if there is someone that you can give your elevator speech to, and try to get contact information so that you can follow up after the event.  And rather than go straight from one table to the next, try moving around the room more randomly, so that the staff at the table next door won’t have just overheard your elevator speech.

After the job fair, be sure to follow up with every company that you spoke to.  Send an email or a letter to thank the representative for his or her time and attention, and reiterate how anxious you are to discuss a position when convenient.

With just a little bit of planning and forethought, you can get the most out of the job fairs that you attend, and you will find that perfect position!