I am flying across the country in 10 days for an interview with a prospective employer, and interview with an apartment finder, and a job fair that is going on at the same time. I have been to job fairs before and I occasionally got one or two responses back, but for the most part they seemed like a bit of a waste of time. Since it is a free way to meet some potential employers though I can’t bring myself to pass it up.
Has anyone here ever gotten a job from attending a job fair? Has anyone here ever been a recruiter at a job fair? What would your advice be to get as many interviews as possible out of the experience?
My advice is actually talk to them, don’t just ask about their company. Odss are, the recruiters at job fairs drew the short straw at the office and would much rather not be there. If you can take their mind off of the “crap job” they got for the day, they will remember you. When it comes time to hire someone, do you think they will go with applicant #37, or will they go with “Pete, the guy I talked to for an hour about who will win the next Cowboys game and who also had a pretty good resume”?
Be memorable. Hell, wear a nifty hat or something, people remember that.
Job fairs are great places to get free pens but generally they represent industries with high turnover (such as trucking). Everyone should go to one so they can say they did it. Kind of like eating White Castle hamburgers when you’re sober.
Most of the ones I’ve been to have been fairly useless. However, my present company will recruit at job fairs. They like to bring in a lot of people all at one time.
The recruiters at a job fair are usually HR people, kids right out of college sent back to their campus, or whoever happened to be around that day. They are sent with a task of “bring back resumes”. There is usually a line of people so you generally don’t get a chance to shoot the shit for 40 minutes about the Cowboys.
The best way to approach a job fair is to dress professionally (we only have a minute to figure out if your shit is together), have a well-written resume, speak loudly and articulately, and open with “My name is ____, I see that you do __ at your company and I am interested”.
If we like you and your resume, we’ll put a little mark or check or whatever on your resume and if we don’t, we’ll put some other symbol. The resumes will go back to the office where we will eventually sift through them and call a few folks in for an interview.
Do you think companies with legit job openings attend job fairs? So far every job fair I have seen listed has had Primerica Financial there and they are CitiBank’s answer to the pyramid scheme. That makes me a bit skeptical, especially considering the distance I will have to travel for an interview should I get one. Do you need to go to a job fair for a specific industry to find jobs worth applying for?
My approach to them is a bit non-traditional.
Sign up for them and ask for the list of who will be there. Hopefully you can get an Excel file with company and person. Then mail those people your CV and cover letter stating “Sorry, I was out of town that day.” Or something. Because you are sorta-part of the career fair, and sorta just sending in your CV, they won’t have a neat cubby-hole to stick your CV into. Someone will have to make a decision about what to do with your CV. It will get handled and read by a decision maker (hopefully).
I approach job searches in ways that make you stand out from the crowd. If you are part o the cattle-call, then you get compared to all the others in sometimes spurious ways (e.g. “Throw out all CVs from people that don’t live in Orange Country.”) If you somehow draw attention to your CV, it will stik out in someone’s mind. And if you meet all the other requirements of the position(s), then I feel you have a better shot at an interview.
This is how my bro-in-law got a position at McKensey Consulting - they had a cattle call career fair…He went to their office the next day in suit-n-tie and said “Apologies, I wasn’t there yesterday as I was out-of-town. Here is my CV, is there anyone I can quickly speak with?” He stood out from the crowd and got an interview…which led to more and eventually a 6-figure salary and an EMBA from Kellogg.
-Tcat
As Magiver said, they are mostly frequented by companies with high turnover - IT, financial or insurance sales, etc. Companies don’t hire their Regional Director of Marketing at a job fair.
An exception would be campus job fairs affiliated with a university. Top companies may attend those fairs looking to both attract entry level hires and build name recognition with the school.
Job fairs are typically used repeatedly by companies who are hiring desperately. There are exceptions, but, in my experience, going to the job fair is an answer you give in a meeting when the big boss asks you “What are you doing to get more people in here?”
I worked in a call center and we used to go to job fairs and even hold our own (we would typically be hiring for 50+ positions in the call center, warehouse, and mail room).
Job fairs are a good way to get a job fast, not a fast way to get a good job.
I’ve gotten two jobs from job fairs, and both were good, long-term jobs. But then, I went to targeted job fairs (in my case, medical and allied health professionals), not the kind of general ones where the telemarketers are set up near the Blockbuster Video booth, across the aisle from the bank and the gym. Some of my friends have gotten good jobs with big companies through general job fairs, though, so I’m not dismissing them at all. It’s a question of being able to impress the person you speak to at the fair, and having them remember you when you call back later.
It’s best if you can get a list of the companies beforehand, so you can research them a little before going in. The trick is to go up to the booth when it’s less crowded and try to get a conversation going with the representative. Ask about the job specifics, talk about yourself a little (specifically, what you’ve got that they can use), before handing over the CV. It’s a sneaky way of getting yourself a mini-interview - even if this isn’t the person who will ultimately do the hiring, if you make an impression, the message will be passed along to the right people. Get names, business cards, and follow up on the jobs within a week. Once you’ve left each booth with a business card, stop somewhere to scribble anything important about the encounter on the back of it, including the job they’re hiring for, and any details about the interviewer that might come in handy later, like “Spoke to Jill (from Seattle branch). looking for manager, maternity replacement”. When you’re following up, if you can show that you’re interested in this job with this company and not just everyone at the fair, it should help.
Very important, and often overlooked: look good. Not necessarily suit-and-tie good, but dress professionally, carry a nice folder or briefcase to hold your resumes and any info you pick up. If you’re wearing a big coat and boots because of the snow, find out if there’s a way to leave those somewhere (coat check? lockers?) while you go through the fair. I’m sure you know all that already, but I’ve seen some people at job fairs who look like they just woke up and got dragged there.
I wouldn’t call it sneaky. Remember though, the best you can hope for is that your resume will be one out of the 50 that get a “check” to bring you in for the next step. That’s the fundamental problem with job fairs - no matter what you do, there are 500 other resumes of people all trying to do the same thing.
I tell my people not to even give out business cards at a job fair (or they learn after the first time they do). Imagine 500 people sending you “thank you” emails and following up with you for weeks.
If it’s a professional job fair, wear a suit. People who show up looking like crap get a “no” on the resume.
Do people at job fairs even consider attendees from out of state? My hope is that I will go in, hand out resumes, make a fabulous impression and then a few months from now when they are looking for people to fill other possible positions they go flipping through their back resumes and think, “Oh yeah, that girl was awesome…I should call her and see if she still wants a job.”