Job Fairs – a Tool for Coaching and Business Development

Job Fairs, Career Fairs, and Career Days may be excellent tools for job seekers and career coaches to support career management goals. 

Career fairs are also tremendous opportunities for career coaches to build business and for recruiters and hiring managers to build talent pipelines.

Many communities hold career days or job fairs. Some are very large, held in arenas or fairgrounds, and host scores of employers, including the military and government. Job fairs may be technical, skill-specific, or professional. 

Job fairs are often found on college campuses. They may include recruitment for the military, specific companies recruiting for entry-level/new graduate type positions anywhere in the country, and companies local to the university soliciting new graduates in particular fields. 

Some job fairs are smaller and very specific to a discipline or need, e.g., only for nurses or newly graduated nurses, veterans, military spouses, those holding government security clearances, or those seeking jobs with a particular company. 

Some job fairs require candidates to bring detailed résumés, identification, military documentation, and transcripts, so ensure your clients are prepared. 

When I prepare a career management action plan for my clients, it includes a complete list of potential approaches to seek employment, including job fairs. Jobs fairs, especially in-person events, create opportunities for my clients to meet and greet recruiters and hiring managers, learn about specific companies, and ask questions.  The job fairs allow candidates to 

• Ask questions about job opportunities available
• Determine the requirements needed to meet minimum qualifications for different positions (skills, competencies, education, certifications)
• Learn about application procedures for specific companies or positions
• Gain information about completing exams/skill tests
• Learn how to know/be aware of when jobs are available
• Gain awareness of the best search terms for job alerts

The in-person networking events help job seekers learn about specific career opportunities available and receive on-the-spot résumé reviews; and create opportunities for follow-up conversations, the building of relationships that can be expanded to LinkedIn connections, and further opportunities for candidates to ask questions about companies and skill sets required for specific roles. 

It also puts a “name to a face” and allows candidates to shake hands and practice simple pre-interviews at the recruiters’ tables. Ensure your clients are ready to engage in short interviews and professionally share their skill sets by developing a “Tell Me About Yourself” (TMAY) response in advance. 

Navigate a Job Fair Well

I coach my clients to leverage the job fair opportunity to the best of their ability. I ask them to research the companies represented at the event and identify 5 to 10 that are related to my client’s discipline or companies for which they are most interested in obtaining employment. I coach them to draft several questions to ask recruiters, to learn more information, engage the recruiters, and impart their team-playing, positive attitude. 

I coach my clients by polishing their résumés, and developing and practicing their TMAY responses to build confidence and poise. We also discuss dressing appropriately for the job fair and the types of positions the client is targeting, and we practice obtaining contact information from the recruiters and the companies. 

I coach them to send thank you notes to recruiters who took time to speak with my client, or for recruiters with whom my client was particularly interested in a position or obtaining employment with a specific company. 

For Career Coaches: Build Your Career Coaching Visibility

As a career coach, leverage job fairs as a tool to build your business. Source local and virtual job fairs and offer to serve as a career coach or résumé reviewer at the event. Many events include speakers offering 30-minute sessions on specific topics, e.g., résumé writing, ATS, interviewing, and more. 

If you’re an expert in a discipline, e.g., an accountant, nurse, or engineer, offer to review résumés and/or provide 10-minute laser coaching sessions to attendees. Brand yourself as the subject matter expert in the discipline to the job fair organizers. 

To further build your potential client list for in-person job fairs, ask attendees to submit a résumé.  When you return to your office, spend a day or two evaluating all of the résumés you collected against a pre-developed scoring form (to make it easy for you). The evaluation form may include items like:

Clear Header / Focused Job Title/Discipline: Y / N

Education: Y / N

Passive Writing: Y / N

Accomplishments Prominent: Y / N

Results Prominent: Y / N

Too Many Job Duties: Y / N

Page Length: G / P (Good/Poor)

Formatting: G / P

Font Size: G / P

Other:

Comments: 

Email the evaluation form to the candidates along with a tip sheet for interviewing, onboarding, or LinkedIn optimization. 

This is an excellent opportunity to build a business, connect with the community for in-person job fairs or the online community for virtual job fairs, and generate new clients over time. 

Sample Job Fairs (Short List)

Work with your clients to research job fair opportunities. Look for job fairs via the local business league, military base, federal agency, local universities, alumni career centers, One-Stop, state and federal Department of Labor sites, specific key search terms, e.g., Social Worker Job Fairs, or state of ________ job fairs. 

Federal Government: The Federal Government is still hiring. The federal government lists job fairs for federal agencies and non-federal opportunities. On usajobs.gov – scroll down to the section called “Explore the latest job fairs and events” to view the list of job fair/solicitation opportunities. https://www.usajobs.gov/event/

Opportunities include:

• VA Federal Application Webinar – hosted by the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer and focused on Veterans, National Guard and reserves, and Military spouses.
• Indian Health Service (HSI), Sanitation Facilities Construction Virtual Career Fair – job opportunities include Civil/Environmental Engineer positions in many locations. Open to the public. 
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Career Day, in-person at their headquarters office. It focused on patent examiner positions and building a federal résumé, navigating USAJOBS, and learning about hiring paths. Open to the public and free. 
• Résumé Workshop by the Justice, Bureau of Prisons/Federal Prison System. They are seeking applications for a dentist, physician, physician assistant, correctional officer, chaplain, psychologist, nurse, and others.  
• Bureau of Prisons, Youth Career & Resource Fair for those between the ages of 15 and 25. 
• Northeast In-Person Federal Résumé Workshop at  Federal Correctional Complex. They are seeking qualified Correctional Officers. Gain hands-on experience writing a federal résumé and applying for federal positions. Ask questions to experts. They are hiring at 8+ locations on the East Coast. 
• Federal Bureau of Prisons, San Joaquin Delta College Public Safety Career Fair, San Joaquin Delta College – they are holding multiple live job fair events across 2 months. 

Specialty Events

Security Clearance: Those with government security clearances are in high demand by federal contractors like Microsoft, CACI, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Amazon, Booze Allen Hamilton, and many others. These job fairs are virtual and in-person, covering a wide range of topics from “Polygraph Only” to “Nationwide, including all levels,” “Intelligence Summit,” “Engineering-focused,” “Cybersecurity,” and much more. Check out clearancejobs.com and look for career fairs for the long list of opportunities (https://news.clearancejobs.com/career-fairs/). 

Health Care: For a variety of health care positions/opportunities: https://www.healthecareers.com/career-fair-schedule

Single Company Open Houses: Research specific company open houses/job fair events.

Women for Hire Events: https://jobs.womenforhire.com/