3 Things that You “Must Do” After a Career Fair
So, you’ve been to a Career Fair, now what? Well, don’t just sit around and wait for the recruiter to call you. There are things that you need to do to make sure that getting yourself to that fair is rewarded by hopefully opening new doors for you. Here are 3 things that you should do after a Career Fair:
- Follow-up with a thank you letter to recruiters who you spoke with at the Fair. Hopefully, you asked for business cards or wrote down the recruiters information (at the very least, their name). Send an email thank you–thank them for taking the time to attend the fair and say something about your brief meeting. Remind them why you were there (i.e., interested in an internship, job, contact) and what steps you have taken toward that goal (e.g., applying to the position, following their advice, etc.)
- Add new contacts (i.e., recruiters, other students that you met, etc.) to your LinkedIn account.
- Take stock in your performance at the Fair. What did you do well? What do you need to do better or differently next time. Write them down and put them some where that they are easily accessible. Consider what resources you can utilize to strengthen the areas that you could do better at next time including attending a workshop on Personal Pitch, meeting with a career counselor to strengthen the sense of your professional goals, or working on your networking or mingling skills. Think about what concrete steps you can take to make the next career fair even better.
If you just take these 3 small steps, you will definitely get more from the Career Fair than just simply attending it and then moving on. You should be maximizing every event that you attend. It will shorten your time in the job or internship search.
