Career Fair Tips
Timely arrival- Plan on extra time for checking in and allow yourself ample time to make your way around the entire career fair floor.
Dress appropriately - Wear a suit or suitable business attire; dress for these events as you would to a regular job interview.
Wear comfortable shoes - Lines are frequently long and you should expect to wait, especially for some of the popular companies.
Career Resources – take advantage of any opportunities offered at the event for resume review, career coaching, or interview
Be Prepared:
Pre-Event: Find the companies and open positions available at the career fair that interest you. Apply directly for jobs that interest you online, in advance of the event. Take advantage of the ability to try and arrange pre-scheduled meetings with companies during the event time. If you can’t make the live event you can still apply for the jobs online.
Research: Always prepare in advance of the event. Research the companies attending (full exhibitor list are available on www.careerdoor.com), find out what companies are hiring for your skill sets and make sure that you know information about the company to carry on a knowledgeable conversation about the company. You should know what they sell, to whom and the names of their major products and services.
Resumes - Bring a supply of resumes to hand out to the companies. The number of resumes should correlate to the number of companies that you hope to apply for. Make sure that you store the resumes in a briefcase or portfolio and ensure that you have a pen to take notes.
Prepare a script or sales pitch: Think of a 30-60 second synopsis of yourself that positions you well for open positions. Include your strong points, your goals, and the company and where you want to go within the company as well as what value you bring to the company.
Network - While you are waiting in line, talk to others. You may hear about opportunities of which you were unaware.
Be assertive – make sure that you introduce yourself to recruiters when you reach the table. Start by making eye contact and introduce yourself with a firm hand shake and then use your script. Always ask for next steps in the recruitment process and get there card were ever possible. Lastly, don’t forget to thank the recruiter for their time.
Be enthusiastic – Employers are looking for people that portray enthusiasm. Always smile and be friendly while still professional showing interest in the company.
Follow up – Make sure that you contact all the recruiters that provided you their contact information to thank them for their time. It is usually a good idea to also send a soft copy of your resume to them as it makes it easier for them to enter you in their recruiting systems for future positions.
Sponsors Tradeshow Tips:
Utilize all Opportunities Sponsorship Provides – A good career fair will provide you with exposure to candidates pre-event, on event date and post-event. Make sure you take advantage of all opportunities provided in your sponsorship packages. Pre-event opportunities should be capitalized on quickly to maximize the return on these opportunities and to create greater value for your sponsorship dollars. Examples:
· Exhibitor Listing
· Job Postings
· Onsite Ads
· Resume Access
· Virtual Booths
· Pre-Scheduled Meetings
Prepare:
What will your recruiting strategy for the event be?
- Who will be accessing and processing your online resumes submitted to your company’s postings?
- At the event, will you be just collecting resumes? Collecting and scoring Resumes? Or just sending people to your career site? (what do you have to give them to direct them to the career site?)
- Will you be conducting onsite interviews? Who will conduct them?
- What is the strategy for qualifying candidates on site? Questions or credentials required? (minimum years of experience, certifications, skill sets)
- What is the follow up process for successful and unsuccessful candidates?
Booth –
- Will you be setting up a booth or renting furniture or booths from the venue?
- Who will be setting up booth, if utilizing, and who will be setting up the marketing side of the booth (literature, flyers, signs, promotional items, etc)
- Make sure booth set up is inviting and descriptive of both your company and what it does as well as what positions are open
How and how many staff will be required to attend event? Here are some questions to consider when determining this number:
- How far in the recruitment process do you want to take candidates at the event? If farther then gathering resumes you will need people qualified to ask questions about certain roles to find suitable candidates
- How long of a wait do you want people to have in your booth before speaking directly to candidates?
- How many breaks will your staff require (lunch, washroom, stretch, business)
Enthusiasm - Make sure your staff is very enthusiastic about the company and the recruiting function. They are in many cases the first impression on potential candidates of your company. They should always great candidates which a smile, while looking them in the eye and giving them a firm handshake. List attentively to each individual candidate; make them feel like they are important to you.
Dress Code – Will your staff be wearing business attire or do you have tradeshow shirts for them to wear?
Top 10 Event Tips - Here are some tips for over all tradeshow effectiveness that I learned from a previous VP of Marketing that we affectionately called “The Tradeshow Nazi”
- Have a pre-event meeting to review with all staff schedules, objectives, and requirements
- Prepare a corporate script for recruiters to use when describing your company so that they are all comfortable and consistent with the delivery of your corporate message
- Review your recruitment strategy so that every one is comfortable with the strategy and what has to be accomplished to reach your goal.
- Review all marketing material that will be available at the event and make sure everyone knows who is suppose to get what information at the event
- Have all staff meet again 30 minutes prior to start of event to make sure everything is set and everyone is prepared.
- No Food and Drink in the booth
- No chairs in the booth – (sitting is very un-inviting)
- Have a contest to see who can attract the most “isle walkers” (people not looking like they will be stopping at your booth)
- Have a meeting at the end of the event to ensure that information collected will be handled properly so that event follow up is swift.
- Schedule a post event meeting to discuss event. Determine successes and any areas that you could improve on for next event.