You Can Get a Job From Attending Career Fairs
While most professionals write off career fairs as a means of finding a job, according to a SHRM/Career Journal Poll Search Tactics Survey, over 70% of human resources departments participating rely on job fairs to recruit employees. They are not only great events for identifying employment opportunities, but also for expanding your network, honing your interview skills, learning industry information, gathering information about companies, and collecting business cards.
“Career fairs are good job seeking tools because you are able to make more contacts through employers and candidates just by being around forty or fifty companies and talking to your peers,” Lew Shomer, President/CEO of the NAACP Diversity Career Fair. “They are opportunities to network, resource contacts, get information on new products and services and determine your individual worth in the market by just asking a few key questions.“
Niche Career Fairs
In recent years, niche career fairs have grown in popularity. Not only can you find events for people in your specific career specialty, but also in your specific industry. A great resource for these types of events, are professional association conferences. Most of these events prominently feature career fairs.
”Corporations look at these career fairs and national associations that host them, like National Black MBA Association to bring to them marketplace in a cost efficient manner,” Antoinette M. Malveaux, National Black MBA Association President & CEO. The minority professional who does attend these events is missing a great opportunity to connect with a number of corporations."
As the ethnic make-up of the US population becomes increasingly diverse, employers find it important to have a staff that reflects the diversity of our society. To accommodate this demand, diversity career fairs have become increasingly popular.
Job Fair Planning
While many job seekers earnestly seek to obtain employment by attending these events, few know how to go about it successfully. Many are ill prepared and walk away from them without interviews with their targeted companies and feeling let down. By developing a strategic plan, you can significantly increase your success at identifying employment opportunities, making an impression and obtaining second interviews. The following tips are designed to help you create a strategy that will have you walking away from these events with job leads and interviews.
