Career Fairs - How to plan and organize
Career fairs are an excellent way for individuals to get opportunities to visit with companies and organizations within their area in hopes of being hired for a job. They are especially helpful when they’re held on a college campus for current and graduating students because it gives the students an opportunity to visit with companies of their interest all within a day and getting their resume circulated.
You may be interested to learn how to set up career fairs. Where you begin? Here are some tips. First, you need to decide what kind of companies and recruiters you would like to invite. If you are holding them at a college, what is the focus of the graduating students? What type of jobs will they be seeking with their majors? Next, you’ll want to gather information on the companies and send letters alerting them of the date and time of the planned career fairs to give them a heads up. You’ll probably want to do this about four to five months in advance because just as you do, companies also need time to make arrangements to attend the career fairs.
Send the official invitation for the career fairs about two months in advance and ask the companies to RVSP so you can plan on the room you’ll need for the booths they will be setting up. Some companies prefer to have electricity running to their booth to setup their displays and some may even ask for internet access to set up displays on their computers. Make sure you have this type of access for them.
After getting a count of how many companies will be attending your career fairs, set up a plan on paper of how you will have your booths arranged. You may also want to consider planning a continental breakfast for the companies when they arrive and of course, have lunch catered for them as well.
For career fairs at colleges, it’s a good idea to have nametags available for the students who will be attending. This way, they can easily be identified by the companies when they are walking around visiting their booths at the fair. Suggest to them to put their program area or majors on their nametags as well.
Career fairs are successful events for both the employers and the jobseekers because it gives the companies excellent exposure to network and find the employees they are searching for and it gives the attendees opportunities for employment.