Career fairs

[gezuz]

Bout to go to one on Wednesday at UW, what should I expect? I'm dressing in slacks, striped dress shirt and a sports jacket, gonna print about 30 resumes and load em up in a notebook. I'm going in looking for a summer internship or part time job, is there any key phrases I should be saying? I feel confident about my small talk, smile, presentability, etc.

FWIW I'm a soph majoring in Business->Accounting probably, just now quitting 4 years of working at Washington Mutual as a teller that began in high school.

[lippy]

I've been to one with the intent of getting a feel for what it was like and POSSIBLY make some contacts for the the future. It was essentially pointless for me.

A few easy tips;
- wear a tie (you didn't mention it... so I'm just making sure)
- print your resumes on expensive paper
- act eager to learn and enthusiastic

The people I spoke to ended up asking about my intentions and availability and such, which kind of killed anything (again, I was wasting my time) positive from happening. I do , however, think I could call up one of the people I spoke to from General Mills and get an interview rather quickly.

It was an interesting experience. Just don't be nervous... they are there because they want someone like you. All you have to do is give them the opportunity to fulfill their wishes.

[ChipStorm]

OP, I've been to a few career fairs as a recruiter, here's my advice. It's speed dating. Focus on the numbers game.

Career fairs are high-interaction, low-probability events: you'll see many companies, all of them will talk to you briefly, and the chance that a particular one has an opening that you will fit into is very small. So talk to as many people as you humanly can, and hand out as many resumes as you can. (Bring 100 resumes, not 30.)

Just like dating, don't be afraid to introduce yourself to anyone representing any company, and likewise, don't be afraid to move on immediately if what they say doesn't sound genuinely interesting/promising.

Recruiters are usually not looking for a star, but they are most certainly always looking for the best fit -- and you will never know all the details of what that fit is, because they're always thinking about far more things than would ever fit on a job description. (See how well the dating analagy works? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]) So trying to game a company/position that isn't indicating a really strong fit is almost always a waste of time.

You want to finish up with two or three very, very strong potential candidates. You don't get that done by trying to have long conversations with five facebook hotties. You get it done by talking to 50 girls, and finding two surprising gems in the bunch.

Good luck!

[Suigin406]

i just want to emphasize what others said, u need to quickly get the details out because these people have tons of others they need to see, so don't waste time with the little stuff...i would focus more on the internship, i don't know too many recruiters looking to give out an actual job to a sophomore, but meh...

dress appropriately (tie) and bring a portfolio with ur resumes in it...

[Hank Scorpio]

What everyone else said.

Also, for the companies you're interested in, make sure you know a little bit about them. Just go to their website for 5-10 minutes and try remembering something specific about them. They're seeing so many students at once so you'll need something that sticks out.

Also keep in mind that each recruiter is different. When I went to my career fair I only visited 8 companies because I was looking to work in a particular field. Of those 8 companies, I can say that I connected with only 2 of them. A ton of the time you're gonna have boring people with no personality take your resume and you can't really leave an impression with those types of people IMO. But you will at least connect with one recruiter so make sure you take advantage of this.

Are you aware of what a 30 second commercial is btw?