The next big local event is the annual CareerLink Job Fair this coming Wednesday, September 21st, 2011, at the Allentown Fairgrounds. Along with many other Lehigh Valley employers, we will be there to meet with you and other job seekers. In preparation for the event, we thought we’d share our advice on how to prepare for a multi-employer job fair.
1) Research - Review the companies that will be there. Visit the websites of those companies to check out current job openings. If there are opportunities you are interested in, take a minute to learn more about the company. Then when you speak with a recruiter at the job fair, you are able to talk about a specific opening or about their company’s business and really stand out from the crowd.
2) Prepare - This is the one time you won’t be able to customize your resume. Since you will be presenting it to multiple employers for various opportunities, make your objective specific to the way you’d like your skills to be used and to the type of work environment you prefer. For this occasion, this is better than trying to specify a position or an industry. And of course be sure to avoid the common resume mistakes--including resume inflation.
3) Practice - Do you have your 30-second commercial ready? This is one tool you absolutely must have ready for a job fair. Prepare it and practice it. A job fair is a great opportunity to end your commercial with a question; this will help you start a dialogue with the recruiter.
4) Attire - Going to a job fair is a lot like going to a bunch of mini-interviews, so dress as you would for an interview. The Allentown Fairgrounds are certainly a casual environment, but don’t dress for the venue. Dress to make a great first impression, as if you were attending an interview.
5) Prioritize - Rather than start at one end of the job fair and visit every single booth, determine your game plan before you arrive. Because you’ve done your research, you will know the employers you are most interested in visiting. Start with those. If the recruiters are tied up with a line of people waiting, it may be best to stop back. For some very popular employers, there may be no down time for the recruiters and waiting in line may be your only option.
6) Respect - At a busy job fair, you need to be respectful of the recruiter’s time. If there are a large number of job seekers, you may not get a chance to do much more than introduce yourself and drop off your resume. Don’t monopolize a recruiter’s time with excessive explanations about your work history or with multiple questions about their openings. You want to be remembered but not as the person who talked excessively. The Ag Hall job fair is typically the busiest one of the entire year, so being respectful of a recruiter's time is especially important here.
7) Follow-up - Get business cards and contact information for the companies you are interested in and follow-up with them. A short, hand-written thank-you note reconfirming your interest in the company or in a particular opening is a simple way to give a recruiter a reason to pull your resume out of the stack they have from the job fair.
A bonus tip for the CareerLink event: consider going during non-peak hours. Typically this job fair is busiest first thing in the morning, so if you delay your arrival until early afternoon you may find shorter lines and recruiters with more free time to speak with you. (Parking might be easier too!)
The economy does seem to be improving, but the job market is still tight. Don’t be intimidated by long lines at job fairs or by the volume of resumes you see stacked on a recruiter’s table. If you play your cards right, you’ll be on the “first call back pile” and a new employment opportunity may find its way to you.
Best of luck--and be sure to visit our booth at the job fair on Wednesday!
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