Mastering Career Fairs: 10 Tips for Employers & Businesses

Career fairs, while they might seem a bit old school in the digital era, are still a great way to meet potential employees. Not to mention, you can get a great scope of the market by interacting with a wide variety of potential applicants. In this blog post, we will walk you through everything you need to know about career fairs and how you can make the most out of them. Learn about the definitions and details about recruitment this way and use our checklist of the best tips on how you can prepare for your next conference. At the end of the day, the most important thing about a job fair is to showcase your company in a positive way to get people excited to work with you in the future. Keep reading to learn about the 10 tips for you to have a successful career fair.

10 Tips for Career Fair Preparation

Something as complicated as a job fair needs some time to prepare everything in order for it to go smoothly. Here are our expert tips for career fair preparation in order to make it a successful one. We have broken it down in a timeline format so it is easy to see what the next steps should be.

Before the Event

The day of the fair is not the beginning of the timeline.Here are some of the best things you can do in advance in order to prepare for the career expo. In order to have the best experience at this event, you should plan some things in advance.

Tip 1 - Create clear objectives

Before you can plan an event, you need to think about what your goal for the day will be. What would you like to accomplish at this event? Are you looking to hire people right away? Or are you trying to see what is out there and get a good idea of what your competitors are doing at the same time? Or maybe something completely different. It is important to come up with an idea and clearly target something, otherwise it will be hard to gauge whether or not you had a successful event in the end.

Tip 2 - Start planning early & do your research

Since there are a lot of moving parts to a large event like this, it is important to start planning in advance. That can include seeing if there are any special trends in terms of booth designs and products to hand out during the event. You should also think about whether or not your competitors will be there, maybe even close to you. Start planning early to be sure your booth will be a big hit. Also do your research about who might attend this event with you.

Tip 3 - Order promotional products

As mentioned above, you want to stand out from the crowd and encourage people to come to your booth or apply to your open positions. For that reason, you should consider some offline marketing strategies and hand out promotional materials. You can go with some classics like lanyards or even ballpoint pens, but be sure to add your logo to these items. Without your unique artwork or design, people might not remember you as well. You can opt for some unique promotional items too if you really want to make a big impression.

Day of the Career Fair

The day of the event is finally here! Here are some things you should keep in mind to ensure the event will go smoothly.

Tip 4 - Get there early

By getting to the venue early, you allow yourself enough time to set up your booth to make it look as attractive as possible. Plus, you might even have some early birds who visit your booth. It will be important to be ready for anyone and everyone who will stop by to talk to you.

Tip 5 - Prepare your elevator speech

People will want to know about your company, what you do, what is the job like, what is the company culture like, etc. That means, it is important to have a quick little speech ready to go for anyone who asks. This short elevator speech should be concise, but cover a lot of topics. Some topics to think about include the opportunities available at your company, what the work culture is like and what benefits someone might receive from working there. Have anyone working at the booth ready to go with these topics to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Tip 6 - Presentation matters

If you chose to hand out promotional items, then the presentation matters! Consider the best way to hand out your products to make sure people get the message about your company. For example, you can host small games like spin the wheel to get prizes or simply hand out goodie bags filled with swag items and other branded gifts. Keep these items handy so you can easily hand it out to anyone and everyone who stops at your booth.

Tip 7 - Gather candidate information

Since you will want to collect any applicant information, you should have something ready to go and easy for them. That can include having a QR code available to be scanned or any other digital tracker. With this type of thing, you can have candidates fill out contact information or simply download more information about your business. This type of digital contact list can provide many benefits for quick and easy applications.

Follow Up After the Job Fair

While a lot of the time you spend will be preparing for the event and actually going to the event, that does not mean your work ends there. Some of the most important things you can do are after the fair itself. Here are some ways to drive home all the hard work you did before to reach your goals.

Tip 8 - Review the applications

If everything went well, then you should have a nice selection of applications and applicants. Now is the time to go over and see who would be the best fit for the position. Plus, the sooner you do this, the more likely you are to remember who these people were in real life.

Tip 9 - Reach out to each candidate

What is great about the job fairs is they are in person. For that reason, it is also really important to reach out to everyone who applied, even if it isn’t with good news. Send out emails thanking everyone for coming and for showing interest in your business. For those who did make the cut, let them know about the next steps and make sure you are available should they have any more questions. If there were candidates you liked, but you didn’t have room to hire them, you can let them know about potential future positions or that you will keep them in mind for any future openings.

Tip 10 - Analyze your performance

Whatever your objectives were going into the job recruitment event, then you should make sure you conduct a follow up to see whether or not you reached your goals. This is important to do right after the event, or shortly after, because it is fresh in your mind. With this type of recency, you can see what you did right and maybe what could have been better. What you learn here will help you do better in the future, whether that may be choosing better objectives or ordering different promotional branded gifts to hand out.

Now that you have your 10 tips, you can host the best career fair possible. However, don’t go yet because we still have some popular FAQs for you to have about job fairs.

Job Fair and Career Fair FAQs

You might have some questions about what a job fair actually is, what it does, what its purpose is, how does it work, etc. The list can go on and on, but these are some of the most popular questions we get and we think can help you starting out.

What is a career fair?

A career fair, job fair, job expo or career expo, or one of the many other names there are for it, is a place where employers can meet potential employees face to face. This event or conference can be used to interview people, but it is also a great opportunity for companies and businesses to hand out information to these potential coworkers and colleagues. This personal interaction is important and unique.

What to wear to a career fair?

As a company, it would make sense to wear something professional to positively reflect your business’s values and ideals. However, depending on the overall vibe of the event or how you would like your company to be perceived, you can also wear something more casual. This might make sense for small companies or startups, as there is often a more relaxed atmosphere in those professional settings. 

What to do at a career fair?

As mentioned, for an employer, this is all about handing out information to potential employers, attendees and other visitors. This is a great chance for you as a company to directly speak with people to get that personal interaction right away. Fairs like this are also a great place to hand out some promotional materials, like promotional giveaways, to make lasting impressions on anyone who visits your booth.

What to bring to a career fair?

Here are some of the best things you can bring with you to your next job expo:

1. Current employees - What better way to showcase your company culture and answer potential questions with your current employees. Consider wearing company swag in the form of promotional apparel to give an extra appearance of a unified business.
2. Products or services - It makes sense to bring some examples of the products your company produces or the services it offers. That way it is possible for applicants to get more information and hands-on experience with what your company can offer them through demonstrations and such.
3. Promotional products - If you want to make sure you leave a lasting impression, then you should consider handing out some promotional items. These are some of the most popular career fair products you can brand with your logo to hand out to anyone who visits your booth.

Now that you have all the information you need to attend a job fair, go out there and get some new applicants