Just Attended A Career Fair? Find Out What To Do Next!

 By Kiernan King, Toppel Peer Advisor

Attending a career fair allows you to explore a variety of career options that you wouldn’t normally have thought about. In doing so, you allow yourself to connect with many employers from a variety of companies and have an opportunity to network and even practice that elevator pitch.

You had your résumés off to countless HR representatives and then…that’s it?

Wrong.

What you do at the career fair is almost more important than what you did while you were there. Here are some steps to follow!

1. Get Organized

Since you probably spoke with many potential employers, it’s important to stay organized and keep track of all your job leads. Did you collect business cards, informational brochures and packets? Can you read that e-mail address that you frantically jotted down after someone said they knew someone better suited to help you with your career goals? Create a document that helps you keep track of everyone you spoke with and some highlights of the conversation you had with them.

2. Follow-Up

You probably gathered as many business cards as you could, now it’s important to follow up with the contacts you met. Send an email, thank you letter or make a phone call. 

Make sure it is well-written and free of grammar errors. Make note of something the employer said they’d help you with, chances are they spoke with many people and don’t remember anything they told you. 

Don’t make this casual. Go to the organization’s website and find specific positions you could apply for, tie your skill sets to match the open position, let them know you’re excited about the opportunity and that you value their input from speaking with them at the event.

3. Make Necessary Changes to Your Resume

If you received any critiques at the fair, be sure to make those changes now. It’s important to keep this document up-to-date, as your skill set changes with each new experience you take on. If needed, come to the Toppel Career Center for walk-in advising Mon-Thurs from 10:00-4:30, a peer advisor will be more than willing to help you out!

4. Practice, Practice, Practice!

Continue to practice your interviewing skills. Everyone claims they are good at interviewing, but are you really? You want to stay sharp and not be nervous before you interview for your dream job.

5. Reflect

It’s important to see how you managed yourself so you can prepare and make any improvements next time. Were you shy? Awkward? Confused? Did you seem to make a fool out of yourself or did you make a joke that left the employers with a good impression? What’s something I would do differently? What worked?

There is always plenty to do once you leave a career fair, just remember to give yourself props for attending one and know that it is never too early, or late, to go to one!

After EXPO

By Maura Gergerich, Toppel Peer Advisor

Many of you attended our Career fair last week to find jobs/internships or network with employers. You’re probably now ready to sit back and relax and let the job offers appear in front of you. Unfortunately, you’re not done yet, but the work still to be done is probably not quite as stressful for you than talking to dozens of companies in one day. Here’s how to get started:

1.Get organized

You want to try to sort out everything that happened at Expo. Make lists of the recruiters that you talked to. Include any business cards you may have received. Spreadsheets are a great organizational tool for this kind of thing. Also, make sure to take notes on conversations you may have had if you didn’t do this earlier. This will be important for when you reach out to the employers so you are able to jog their memories as to who you are and where you met because they more than likely talked to tons of students. 

2. Make sure your LinkedIn is up to date

Linkedin is a fundamental stop for companies that want to research future employees. In your busy life however, you might not always remember to update it regularly. Once it’s up to date and ready  to go, Linkedin is an easy way to connect with recruiters and employers you may have spoken to or been referred to. 

3. Follow up with employers

Definitely reach out to the contacts you have made. You can send an email, message on LinkedIn or a phone call. The mode is less important than the action itself. This should be done 1-2 days after the career fair so you can make as memorable of an impression as possible. Also, don’t be super casual about it. Know what positions you could potentially be hired for at this company and make sure you tie in your skills to this specific position and let them know what sets this company apart to you.

4. Continue practicing your interview skills

You want to make sure you don’t mess up your opportunities if you are given an interview by a company. The more practiced you are, the less nervous you will be. Think up answers to traditional interview questions or schedule a practice interview at Toppel. 

5. Reflect on your experience

This is an important step for determining what to do for the next career fair you attend. Ask yourself what you did well and what you could improve upon. Did you network well? Did you take the right steps to prepare? All of this information will help you be even better the next time you interact with an employer.