You got ready for the job fair.
You went to the job fair.
Now what?
A lot of energy is put towards preparing for a job fair and attending the job fair, but many people drop the ball when it comes to what to do after the job fair. Remember, those employers and vendors probably saw dozens or even hundreds of people that day and it all rather blurs together by the end of the day, no matter how wonderful you were. That means that if you drop the ball on the follow-up, you may find that the work you did to stand out in the job fair gets erased by time. If you want to prevent this, make sure to do do your follow-up work!
It’s actually pretty simple to do and shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes. It’s definitely worth doing!
Organize Your Information
You probably got some business cards, pamphlets, booklets, swag, and other stuff, so take a few minutes to reorganize and get it all filed away. The business cards in particular you want to keep handy as those will have the contact information of the people you’ll be able to directly communicate with about open positions. Make sure to have them organized and ready to pull out whenever you need them.
Fine Tune Your Targeted Resume
Based on the conversations you had with those employers, you should be able to better fine-tune your resume to match what they want and need. They might have dropped leads about jobs that aren’t widely known about, or they might have brought up something that wasn’t in the job post, but seems to be of importance. Make sure to take this opportunity to tweak your resume to more perfectly fit what the employer is looking for based on real-world information! It’s not often you get to have that, so take advantage of it.
Send Your Follow Up Email
You don’t want to do it right away, but within a few days of the job fair, send a follow-up email, just like you would after an interview. In this email, establish right away where and when you met, express your interest in a position with the company, outline a few of your key strengths, and a hope to have a conversation soon. The goal here is to remind the person that you met, give them a quick recap of what you have to offer, and be able to get your resume in the hands of a real person, as opposed to an automated system. And of course, make sure to thank the person for their time in speaking to you!
This could also be a follow up call, text; whatever the person told you to use for communication, though email is by far the most common since they may want a copy of your resume or other certifcations.
Keep Looking for Work
One good job fair does not a job make, no matter how much positive contact you made. Keep doing your usual routine for looking for work, whatever that looks like to you.
We spend a lot of time and energy worrying about the job fair itself, but the after-work can be neglected. By taking a bit of time out to organize, fine-tune, and communicate, you improve your chances of getting an interview and ultimately landing that job.
Good luck!
