Who’s Hiring at your Job Fair?
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, job fairs should be one of the key activities / resources you are using in your job search. The benefits are: many employers in one place, the opportunity to give your “elevator speech” to a fair number of potential employers, the opportunity to give a good impression which could lead to an interview. Generally, only companies that are hiring show up at job fairs, what better opportunity will you have.
Besides the usual (dress appropriately, have plenty of copies of resumes, practice your “elevator speech”, etc.), you MUST GET THERE EARLY. Even in the best of times these events are well attended. In today’s environment an amazing number of people show up at these events. How early should you get there? I’ve heard that some of these events are “full” by 7am (and that’s just the line to get in). The choice is yours (and dependent on when the fair opens), but I would not get there later than 7am.
- Local Job Fairs and Career Events – This link lists upcoming job fairs and career events (it is not exhaustive). Clicking on a link will provide additional information about the event. This site also allows free registration, but I don’t know if you get notification of upcoming events. While the site shows events through December 2009, there may be events that will be listed at a later date. So it makes sense to check the site every so often.
- 2009 Job Fair Series – This site, offered by EmploymentGuide.com, provides a very large list of job fairs and it appears to be nationwide. There are also virtual job fairs, which is an interesting concept and saves you the worry of having to travel someplace and get there early (although you will want to be on the site early).
- Nationalcareerfairs.com – This site, according to the text on their main page, has over 300 fairs in 72 cities. You can use their search engine (just type in your city, state or zip code) or search by city. You can register on the site to see the employer list and leverage their calendar to see an easy to use graphical view of upcoming job fairs.
- Monster Job Fairs – Monster has a dedicated job fair site as well. The main page allows a search based on Zip Code and there are over 302 job fairs in 77 cities (very close to the National Career Fairs stats). Below the “search for fairs by zip” is a section which covers Job Fair Tips and Resources and at the bottom of the page there is a listing by region. Searching by zip code returns fairs near you. In this case, this site returned a job fair in my area that was not listed on Nationalcareerfairs.com
- TargetedJobFairs -This site, run by Dice.com, is another resource for job fairs. The main page is very busy, with several tabs at the top. The two tabs that are of interest for this topic are Career Fair Types and Upcoming Career Fairs. You can search for career fairs near you either by using a map of the US (left hand side of the page) or by selecting your region from a drop down box. You can sign up to get notification of upcoming job fairs.
Good luck in you search.
