Career Fair Strategy - Executive Networking with Company Representatives to your next job

By Jason Lee

In addition to understanding the fair's twist on resumes, you will need to hone your job-fair-networking skills to master the job fair. While job fairs are certainly great opportunities to drop resumes at many companies, they require more than just printing out fancy papers and leaving them with recruiters. You will have to interact with representatives in order to leave your resume, and you want to leave a good, lasting impression.

Networking at a job fair involves the process of getting to know representatives and hopefully obtaining their contact details. Job fair attendants need to go through this networking process because representatives want to know if they are good fits for the company. Showing that you are a good fit is hard to do on a resume alone, so you need to take it into your own hands to show that you mesh with the company representatives present at the fair. To get thing a good handle on what companies and fairs are coming up, take a look at JobConcierge.com where they have a comprehensive list of career expos and networking events.

Before you leave your resume with a recruiter, you ought to look for any senior people (or hiring managers) that came to the fair. All representatives are great, of course, from human resources to entry-level employees, but you really want the higher-ups with influence to remember that you are a great fit for the job. At the end of the day, they are the ones who will be making decisions about who to hire.

Additionally, before speaking with the representatives, you should have prepared a short statement (thirty seconds to one minute) about your background, why you would be a good fit, and why you are enthusiastic about working for the company. This statement does not need to be memorized, but you will need to have some outline of what you want to say to the recruiters before you go. You want the representative to know that you aren't just there to drop resumes at every stand, desperately hoping to catch any interview thrown your way. It would be a good idea to find a friend before the fair and practice your response to the question, Can you tell me a little about yourself? Other possible questions may revolve around your potential career plans or past work experience.

Researching in advance also opens up opportunities beyond simply sounding well-read and intelligent. For example, if you know from your research that the company is starting new projects or selling new products in China, you will be able to let representatives know that you are fluent in multiple dialects of Chinese, have worked in China before, and can help execute their project or product launch by serving as a first line of interaction with the native workforce (but only if this is all true). You?re doing everything you can to leave a long-lasting, favorable impression with company representatives.

Before you go to your next job fair, don't forget to thoroughly practice, research, and prepare yourself. We recommend you review JobConcierge.com for career advice and more job fair information. This is the best way to make sure you leave a good impression with each representative at the fair. If you're fortunate, your networking preparation (and strong resume) will result in the start of a new career. - 32171

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