But before you make a dash for your nearest fair heed the words of one graduate recruiter to make sure your trip is worthwhile.
‘One of the problems is that people often go to careers fairs with a slightly aimless approach,’ says Rose Bevan, Head of Resourcing at Mouchel Parkman. ‘They tend to wander round, collect the free gifts, put them in their carrier bag and off they go without really getting that much out of it.’
The right approach
‘Before attending a fair you need to think carefully about the kind of work that you want to do,’ advises Rose. ‘Do you want to work with a company that deals with the public sector or private sector? What kind of training or development opportunities are you looking for?
‘Then find out which companies are going to be at the fair and do a bit of research, look at the company websites, the kind of work that they do and the range of opportunities that might be available.
Also look at the clients the company work with because that will give you a really good indication of who they deal with and the kind of challenges they might be facing.’
What to ask
‘Ask recruiters questions about the actual programme,’ says Rose. ‘Things like training and development and specific opportunities that graduates would be likely to get involved in.
Ask questions about the type of clients they have or new projects that they are working on. If you ask targeted questions you will get a lot more out of the fair rather than just asking questions about things like how much holiday you will get, for example.’
CV or not CV?
‘These days most companies have online application systems,’ explains Rose. ‘If a graduate hands you a CV at a fair, that’s fine, but I think that they would be better to go onto the website and actually apply formally.
Instead of handing over a CV, use the opportunity to talk to people. Network and find out whether this is really the kind of thing that you want to do.’
What to wear
‘We don’t expect people to come in suit and tie,’ says Rose. ‘Obviously we want someone to look presentable but we’re really looking for someone who has obviously prepared beforehand and who takes the opportunity to have a bit of interaction and explore whether this is the sort of company that they want to work for.
The application process itself takes quite a long time and it’s a shame if people go through all of that and then find out it’s not really what they wanted in the first place.’
Can all this lead to a job?
‘Yes definitely,’ advises Rose. ‘If somebody makes quite an impact at a fair and gives you their name and says “I am definitely going to apply” we would look out for that name in the application process.’
