Conquering the Career Fair
By Cara Scharf
Career fairs are the ultimate job bazaars—bustling rooms crawling with dozens, or even hundreds of employers looking to deepen their talent pool. For job seekers, this means a golden opportunity to meet receptive recruiters face to face, gather a ton of information in a short time, and hopefully line up some interviews along the way.
In today’s crowded job market, companies are hiring very selectively, and you’ll have to do a lot more than just show up to succeed at a job fair. That’s why we’ve compiled some advice to help you locate the right job fairs and make sure you give a memorable performance while you’re there.
Finding the fairWhen you’re in college, you can easily check with career services to see when the next round of employers will descend upon your school. Off campus, you’ll have to be more active. Job search engines like Monster.com , CareerBuilder.com , and Idealist.org (for nonprofit jobs), organize their own fairs. Other sites, such as NationalCareerFairs.com and CareerFairs.com let you join for free to see calendars, plus there are companies that frequently host fairs, such as CarouselExpo.com and JobCircle.com .
Your state employment office is a good local resource (find a list here ), as are newspapers and events guides. And even if you’re not a student, check out career center calendars at local schools.
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