Tom Cal, CFA ⋅ San Francisco, CA Army Veteran, Investment Manager ⋅ 25 years experience

One goal of attending a hiring fair might be to start short conversations with one-person form each firm in which you are interested, collect business cards, and ask permission to call and email for a more in-depth conversation. If one person says yes and you can begin that in-depth conversation, attending the fair might be worth it. That said, there might be more effective and efficient ways to network.

I've attended one job fair, in New York City and specific to Military Veterans and the Finance industry. I attended the fair because I happened to be in New York City at the time, and as a way to network, both for myself and in my volunteer role as a mentor and advisor to Veterans.

I found the fair "somewhat useful" as a way to meet individuals, have a brief conversation, and collect a business card with which I could follow up and try to at a later date have a longer conversation and then over time develop a more meaningful conversation. SO for me, a hiring fair offers the potential to start a conversation.

If you attend hiring fairs, be sure to have your resume professionally written, your goals well-defined, and your "elevator speech mastered. (Toastmasters.org is one tool to practice your elevator speech and public speaking.)

https://www.google.com/search?q=elevator+speech
https://www.google.com/search?q=elevator+speech+site%3Atoastmasters.org

Christopher Stim ⋅ Ambler, PA U.S. Air Force, Major ⋅ 22 years served

Eric,

Thanks for your response and advice.

I agree with you that "if leveraged properly", job/hiring fairs CAN be useful. But that's a two way street. Even on occasions when I have applied for jobs with companies and then show up at job/hiring fairs to talk with a human being from the company, more often not, that rep does not have a clue about the position I applied for, does not know the department I'm talking about, does not know about other POCs within the company I might be referred to, and if I tell them that I applied online through their company's hiring engine, they then think they can ignore me because I'm already in their HR system and they don't have to spend their energies trying to recruit me or spew company propaganda in my direction.

Let's just say that I'm not impressed by any of the job/hiring fairs I've attended to far, whether those are sponsored by highly reputable organizations such as MOAA, the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation (i.e., hiringourheroes.org) or one's local BBB. "Just go to our company web site and build a profile" I'm told. Worthless drivel. I can do that at home.

Chris

Eric Knode ⋅ Minneapolis, MN Owner BPM Consulting LLC ⋅ 10 years experience

Chris,

I have attended numerous job/hiring fairs and believe they can be very useful if leveraged properly. As Janelle pointed out, if there is a company that you are interested in joining it is a great opportunity to begin networking with recruiters and employees. I would suggest applying for positions prior to the event and discussing these positions with the recruiters. I have had the recruiters provide the contact information for hiring managers or recruiters for the position I applied for. I have also had recruiters at events pass my information along and received call backs due to this attention.

From my limited experience with the recruiting aspect of business I have come to learn that these events are for recruiters to ensure qualified candidates are routed to the correct hiring/recruiter for the position they are interested in.

Here are some links that provide information on how to best leverage job/hiring fairs:

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/03/14/how-to-stand-out-at-a-job-fair
http://www.career.vt.edu/JobSearchGuide/JobCareerFairPrep.html

Best regards,
Eric

Sam Miller ⋅ Houston, TX Hewlett Packard ⋅ 25 years experience

I attended 3 job fairs in my lean time, and deemed it a complete waste of time, because most of the "hirers" were MLM. (This was 2002-2003 time frame). Only attend those that have companies you want to work for.

Christopher Stim ⋅ Ambler, PA U.S. Air Force, Major ⋅ 22 years served

Thanks for the reply! Very good points on job vs hiring fairs. R, C.

Janelle Hughley ⋅ Riverdale, GA U.S. Army, Sergeant ⋅ 4 years served

Mr. Stim,

I think job fairs vary case by case on whether they are worth attending or not. I learned a few weeks ago that there is a difference between a job fair and a hiring fair. I did not thinking there was much difference between the two, but in hiring fair they are actually looking for candidates for potential positions whereas in job fair they can be looking for potential candidates for a opening that may become available. I think you should consider going to a job fair if one or more of your targeted employers are on the list to attend. You could possibly make contact with an employee and it may prove worthwhile or you may get a chance to learn more about upcoming hiring or project that the company has scheduled in the near future.

I've learned a lot from attending job fairs. I actually received a call from my very first one I attended, but I didn't get the job (they found something else that I was better suited for). Its also a chance to work on your elevator speech to see how it is perceive you may find that it may need some tweaking or that it needs to be reconstructed.

I think you must be prepared to hear a lot of "Apply Online" or "Give us your resume and we'll call if we see a fit" at any job fair you go to.

Just sharing my opinions!