7 Quick Tips to Crush It at the Career Fair
Ah, career fair day.
Me at my first career fair, freshmen year
@ Madison Square Garden, NYC
One of my past favorite days of the school year. Nothing used to excite me more than looking at all the potential next steps after graduating.
The most common questions I get from undergraduates are:
How do I stand out?
What do I actually say?
What questions are important to ask?
Career fairs can be tricky to navigate and overwhelming if you’re not a crowd / people-person. Even if you are, here are a couple quick tips before, during, and after to help you crush it.
BEFORE
Plan ahead. Know the answers to: What companies are going? What are they hiring for? What do these positions do? Why do you want to work there? The intent of career fairs is to learn more about a company about something you can’t find on Google. Dumb questions exist at these tables and it’s when you ask what you could have read about on your own.
Layout the simple outfit. Don’t overdo it. Heels are great but trust me on this, no one will notice or remember if you were wearing them. The auditorium is PACKED. But if heels make you feel your best, then wear them. Looking back now, I would have not worn black and instead opted for other neutral colors like creams or pastels because everyone else was wearing black.
Switch up your resume please. Gone are the days of Times New Roman, exact margins, and words like “Leadership Activities” as headlines. You are a colorful, full-of-young-life experiences human being. Flex your personality. We absorb information a lot faster now. I highly recommend switching up your resume format. I use Enhancv, a resume-design platform, which offers beautiful templates that are easy to download as a PDF, for $10.99/month. Forego a few Starbucks grande lattés for a bit, and get a good lookin’ resume, OK?
Sample resume layout from Enhancv
DURING
Pop a mint and keep the fragrance light. No one likes talking to someone with coffee breath or when they're suffocating in your potent cologne or perfume. Keep it light.
Optimize your wait time by flexing LinkedIn. If you don’t have the LinkedIn app on your phone, download it now. While you’re waiting in line with the other ambitious students, take out your phone and look up the recruiter on LinkedIn as he/she is usually wearing a name badge. Check out how long they’ve been with the company, their alma mater, read their bio, etc.
Now, here’s where people ask me—
“How do I show them I did my research without sounding creepy?”
Uhhh— how about keeping it authentic and telling it like it is?
“Hey [recruiter], I was waiting in line for a while so I took the time to view your LinkedIn profile and saw that you’ve been with [company] for [number of years]. And that you graduated from [university], too! That’s awesome.”
You don't have to mention the university part. You can say anything, just make one line in there as personable as possible.
Then get straight to the point with—
“Well, look [recruiter], I came out today specifically because I saw [that company] would be here. I am graduating this spring and I want to be in the program. I brought my own information *get your resume ready* but I really wanted to learn directly from someone who works at [company] today, how can I best increase my chances?
Next— prepare to jot notes as they share their insights with you.
What you’re doing is positioning yourself to be enthusiastic, eager, and clear in what you want. People like helping people who help themselves.
Smile. I had to put this one in here. I’ve met undergrads with such an insatiable hunger to join a company that they get incredibly focused and somehow forget to be a human. Nail a confident handshake and give them a real smile when you meet them, as if you’re greeting someone you already know and like.
diverse reverse career fair with my Toastmasters crew, sophomore year
@ Rutgers Student Center NJ
AFTER
Get to writing. After you grabbed all those LinkedIn profiles or business cards, send a 3-sentence ‘thank you’ in their InMail, direct message, or email inbox ideally later that evening, but definitely within 24-hours. Remember— no more than 3 sentences, OK, 4 max. If you feel so compelled and need to meet this person for coffee, as I usually did for further discovery and informational interviews, then draft up a very personalized 2 section short email.
I help students ghostwrite these messages all the time.
If you need some guidance, drop me comment or shoot me an email and I’ll help you out. Both send notifications to my phone.
Happy career launching!