Why career fairs are important

How to Prepare for a Virtual Career Fair. Subscribe to The Chronicles of Marketing Newsletter. Your Portable Guide to Hosting Virtual Recruiting Events Your new eBook goes beyond defining virtual career fairs to reveal: Who hosts virtual career events by industry and type of program. Why virtual recruiting events are advantageous.

How to plan a stress-free virtual career fair or recruiting event. Career fairs give you chance to make connections with potential employers, mentors and peers. Bring plenty of resumes or business cards to pass along your contact information, and be prepared to talk about yourself. You should be willing to discuss your talents, skills, experience and education. Have a good sense of what position you want, and what you can bring to the role. Often, interviews at career fairs are for informational rather than hiring purposes.

They are designed to give you more details about the company, and to give the company a glimpse of your ability to carry on a professional conversation. Doing this will help you become a better, more focused listener. It might be helpful to do a little research about each company represented at the career fair if you have a list of who will be there before the event. Career fairs offer you the opportunity to network in an easy way with employers and learn a bit about the roles and opportunities that will be coming up in the workplace.

It gives you the chance to get your face and name in front of employers you'd like to work for and hopefully impress them. Employers tell us frequently that they remember those people that stand out at career fairs so it really does matter. If you were an employer would you want to employ someone who is proactive, interested in your company and what you do?

Or someone who expects a job because they have a degree but has no idea about what your organisation does or values? Employers keep telling us that they want graduates who can communicate and interact.

That doesn't mean you have to be the class clown, but just be happy to talk to them. They want to meet students who have the initiative to come to the fair and ask them about their organisation and possible roles. They want to meet students who have bothered to research them a little and show an active interest in working for them.

By attending career fairs, you can demonstrate you have that initiative and those skills - and believe me employers do remember you. Treasury programme advisor Laura Baird was really impressed with how well prepared students were when they attended the Business and Economics Career Fair last year. Vodafone Events Centre events manager Natalie Robinson says she wants to know who you are and what you can do.

Fletcher Building graduate recruitment business partner Rochelle Grant says AUT students were extremely engaging and enthusiastic and she enjoyed the well prepared questions that were asked by students. Regular workshops on CVs, networking, LinkedIn profiles and elevator pitches are run by the Employability Lab team throughout the year.

Get along to some of these and see what tips you can pick up.