Acing Your Next Career Fair: Tips for University and Conference Fairs
Free merch! Long lines! QR codes! These three things sum up most career fairs I’ve attended (sample size n = 6). I attended my first UC Berkeley career fair in sophomore year, and I found it useful to scope out the environment. Di from Cal NERDS gave me an excellent tip - bring a power bank since you’ll likely scan a lot of QR codes.
For UC Berkeley career fairs, I recommend going either at the beginning or towards the end to minimize waiting times in lines. Treat recruiters as people – they are people too! Don’t jump into an elevator speech; instead, I recommend acting like it’s a conversation. Know your resume. Be prepared for them to ask follow up questions on your experiences and projects on your resume. Also be prepared with questions to ask them about their company (that are not generic questions that can be answered online).
For conference career fairs, I highly recommend submitting your resume to the online database weeks before the actual career fair. In some large career fairs in conferences like SWE and SHPE, employers will arrange some interviews ahead of the conference. Uploading your resume to the conference’s resume bank will increase your chances of being selected for an onsite interview beforehand. I want to emphasize to please do not be worried if you do not receive communication or interview invites from companies in advance. There are still interview opportunities available if you talk to companies (typically on day 1 of the career fair); look online to see what companies are offering onsite interviews and target those booths. Large conferences can be daunting and stressful, so take breaks by going outside of the career fair area. There are usually many different speaker sessions you can attend as well. Take a deep breath.
P.S. Best merch item I ever got? Small Tide detergent from P&G.