When you go to a career fair, you'll bring your resume (also known as a CV), which will not have mistakes, be comprehensible and emphasize your attributes. Even though this sounds like the typical resume, you'll need to think about more advanced job fair strategy beyond that.
First and foremost, the best job fair advice is to bring enough resumes to hand out to companies you are interested in. I cannot emphasize this point more, even though it may come across as common sense, you would be surprised at how many people show up at career fairs empty handed. The number of resumes you bring will ultimately depend on which companies you want to apply to. Take a look at the career fair website in advance and see which companies you want to meet. If no information is available, bring about 25 resumes for a mid size job fair to 40 resumes for a larger job fair.
Another important job fair advice is to make sure your resume is clear, concise and not over two pages. There will be large crowds of people at the career fair, and you may be one of hundreds of attendants. Employers will only scan your resume to see if you fit what they are looking for. There simply is no time at career fairs for wordy resumes filled with unnecessary details.
Be sure to start your research of the specific job fair you are attending or want to attend by looking at good resources. A recommended job fair database is the JobConcierge Executive Job Search job fair list, which is one of the most comprehensive career fair database on the internet. There are always over 300 local and national career fairs from New York all the way to Hawaii and Alaska. After that, see which companies that are attending that you want to apply to and then tailor your job fair resume to them. Are you applying to marketing companies? Then highlight your marketing skillsets. Consulting firms? In that case, you want to concentrate on your analytical abilities.
Of course, you also want to carry some generic career fair resumes that can be distributed to any "second-tier" companies in attendance. You may not have time to drop resumes at every single booth there, but after you've exhausted your first-choice companies (which you'll have thoroughly researched and prepared custom resumes for), you may want to give the other companies a shot.
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JobConcierge offers human powered job search service - Real people search through 300 job sites and submit applications. JobConcierge job search optimization is known for its extensive career fair list