How to Career Fair

Career Fairs — ah, yes, that glorious place where one gets hired and lives out the dream of making money and being frivolous, thrifty, rich college students.

Wrong.

Well, I mean, not really. All your dreams could come true. But only if you game it properly.

Your resume is probably the most important part

Resumes are annoying, I know. They’re tedious and hard to write because it’s honestly pretty difficult to brag about yourself in a perfectly formatted bullet point list on a piece of paper. But it’s necessary. Without a resume, you won’t get an interview. I can promise you that.

Make sure to have any work experience in the past 5 years on there. If you’re a senior in college, put all your work experience from college. If you’re just a freshman, include whatever you have from high school.

Don’t feel bad if you don’t have amazing internships at Google and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Put down what you have, everyone understands that you’re young and opportunities are hard to come by. But what you don’t have in formal internship experience, get in your extracurriculars and side hobbies. List down any relevant experiences you have (not random things like Book Reading Club — unless you have stellar leadership roles). Make sure to include any technical skills that are relevant to the industry you’re interested in joining — if this is tech: list down your languages; banking: list down your certifications; design: include a link to your portfolio.

After that, make sure to include any side experiences or talents that you’re proud of. Employers want interesting individuals, so make sure you’re more than just your technical abilities.

In terms of formatting, keep it simple. It should be easy to read and not too cluttered. I know you want to stuff a lot of information on that one measly page, but don’t let your font size fall below 12pt. If you run out of space, take out the oldest material — unless it’s a truly stellar, once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment. If you need help finding inspiration for a template, just google for resume templates. There are a lot out there and the first few results tend to display the clean cut look you’re going for.

On the day of the fair, make sure to have 30–40 copies of your resume printed out. That seems like a lot but they go fast. Getting a resume in the hands of a recruiter is the best way to get contacted back.

Dress code

Dress for the part. I can’t stress this enough, but first impressions are so unbelievably important. Even if they shouldn’t be and even if underneath the scruffy beard and piercings and tattoos you’re an amazing, loyal, competent employee, the rest of the world does judge on them so make sure to take that into account.

Show up dressed in at least business casual. If you want a consulting or finance job, have a suit on. Dress to impress. If you’re aiming for a more technical career, you can dress down — but don’t go for your stereotypical “jean and t-shirt” look. Though it’s acceptable in the work place, that’s not where you are. You have to earn that spot and one of the first ways of doing it is by not dressing like you’ve already got it.

Even if it means waking up an extra 30 minutes to actually blow dry your hair or make sure your tie is tied on straight, it’s worth it. Those 30 minutes could make or break an impressive job opportunity.

In addition to the clothes on your body, make sure your accessories are in check. Have a bag or portfolio to hold your resumes and business cards. You don’t just want papers flowing everywhere causing you to look like a disorganized mess. In that vein, make sure you don’t have too many bags. There aren’t that many things you need to bring to a career fair so keep it minimal. You want your hands to be free to shake other hands and you don’t want to be overburdened by a purse, backpack, portfolio, and briefcase.

Take Advantage of Your Career Center

Generally, the career center is considered to be pretty lame — unless you’re one of the plethora of college students who don’t even know what I’m talking about: in which case it’s not lame, because it’s not even important enough to be recognized.

I understand that sometimes people get nothing out of a trip there, but it’s possible to gain fruitful information. You just need to be aggressive. If you already know what they’re telling you, ask for more detailed information. If you feel like they’re providing you no criticism, tell them that. Have three different people look over your resume — while some may not have anything useful to add, you’ll likely walk out of there with one or two golden additions.

Decide Which Companies You’re Interested in

The night before the fair, look through the listing of companies attending and see which ones you actually want to talk to. You need to have a game plan when you walk in, otherwise you’re in for an extremely inefficient and ineffective day.

Make sure to look up the mission and areas of expertise for whichever companies you plan on meeting. Get a sense of what they do and where their interests lie so you’re not caught unaware when having a conversation with them. Employers want skilled employees but they also want employees who are committed and interested in what they do. They understand that college students are like frenzied fish fighting over a small piece of food, but that means they’re going to gravitate towards the fish that actually seem interested in their company.

Now for the Actual Career Fair

Now that you’re all prepared and ready to go, here comes to big finale: going to the career fair!

Have your 15 second introduction ready. Usually it goes something along the lines of

Hi, my name is blah and I’m a [year in school] studying [major]. I’m interested in any [internship/full-time/name specific role here] opportunities you may have! *hand recruiter resume*”

Don’t say this too fast or too slow, but just the right speed to get and keep their attention in what is usually an extremely fast-paced and chaotic environment. Once you get their resume in their hand, they’ll probably give you their spiel about whatever opportunities you said you were interested in.

At this point, make sure to ask relevant questions. Don’t ask them about what other schools they recruit at or what their company’s mission is. You should already know these things when you walk into a conversation.

Make sure to get their business card or name and email address. You’ll need these for after the fair. Keep the conversation short — about 10 to 15 minutes. The key task items are to:

• drop your resume
• get recruiter contact information
• determine what roles are available and of interest
• ask a few questions to demonstrate interest and curiousity about the company
• try to get an interview slot (if they’re interviewing on campus) or channel for contact outside of the fair

Final Steps

Once you’re done with the career fair, there are just a few things left to do. Later that night — at the latest, by the next day — email each recruiter you spoke to thanking them for their time and information as well as restating your interest and attaching your resume. Very rarely do students follow up, and by taking the extra step to express appreciation and sustained interest, you’re going to gain a leg up. These emails can be short and sweet, but they should seem sincere. If you remember anything particularly interesting from your conversation, include it! It’ll help jog your recruiters memory and make you distinctive.

Now that you’ve done everything you can, it’s just time to sit back and relax. There’s always the next step, which is the interview, but that’s for another post…

Good luck job hunting! :)

— Sravya Vishnubhatla, Founder & CEO

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