How to Get Hired at a Job Fair

Ever been to one of those “cattle call” job fairs at a hotel or event center?

If so, you likely left without a job. Like many folks did here.

That’s the bad news.

The good news?

You can stand out and impress employers at a job fair — and get hired — if you do just 3 things differently.

And, no, I am NOT going to tell you to wear a suit, gargle, or do any of that typical crap.

This is the story of one of our Guerrilla Job Search clients, Tom from Minneapolis, who found a great job by attending a job fair and impressing the hiring manager with how much he knew about the company’s plans to expand.

How did he get this knowledge?

By reading a local business magazine in search of companies signing new commercial leases, a sure sign of a need for increased capacity.

With a little research, you can uncover valuable information about any employer that will help you make a winning first impression.

Here’s how Tom did it:

“I kept up on the local real estate market by reading Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal magazine. I learned that the employer had picked up 200,000 sq. ft. of office space on a 10-year lease, and I filed that information away mentally. When I met the hiring manager at the job fair, I told him what I knew about their plans to expand downtown. He was impressed with my knowledge and everything went very quickly after that first impression, ending with a job offer.”

Action Steps: Here are 3 ways to stand out and get hired at a job fair …

1. Research and find relevant facts about employers before meeting them. IMPORTANT!

All job fairs publish a list of participating employers before the event, which eliminates guesswork for you. Simply research target companies until you find unusual data about them, their competitors, markets, problems, or opportunities.

2. Bring your research notes to the job fair, so you can speak intelligently to hiring managers.

Once you’ve found information that proves your interest in an employer, jot down notes on 3×5 cards (or in your PDA) and bring them to the job fair. Do NOT trust this information to memory. You will forget, which defeats the whole purpose of doing the research.

3. Bring thank-you notes to the fair and mail them THAT DAY to everyone you meet.

It’s best to bring at least 20-25 thank-you notes, with stamps, to the job fair. That way, you can write your notes to employers right after meeting them, when the conversation is still fresh in your mind. Just drop them in the nearest mailbox before you go home.

Of course, you need to get a business card from every employer you speak with, so you’ll have an address to mail your thank-you notes to.

The key word here is MAIL. Do not email follow-up letters to employers. This has the same effect as emailing an anniversary card to your wife or a birthday card to your mom, i.e., almost no effect at all, because email requires almost no effort.

Writing and mailing a thank-you note DOES require effort, and 42 cents (as of this week) … which sets you apart from the hordes of ordinary job seekers who follow up by email, if they follow up at all.

Resource: Guerrilla Job Search Home Study Course.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 11:14 am and is filed under job interviews, job search tips. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.