Get the most out of Career Fairs if you are looking for work

June 29, 2007 4:10 pm 1 comment

Share this Article

Author:

Being a Professional in the ICT Industry, let’s see how to make the most out of attending a
career fair.

What You Should Seek in the Career Fair

1. Find the trends

If you are someone who has yet to discover your field, or want to explore other professions, a career fair is the best place to do so.

You will find serious employers exhibiting the professions they are working in. You will also find exciting and adventerous startups as well as seasoned corporates all under one roof.

So if you have been wondering where the industry is heading, what qualities/skills are in demand in recent days, the best option is to ask people who are present at the career fair. Consider it a platform for exploring your own interests and matching them with things that are going on in the industry.

Remember, as I mentioned earlier, companies have actually paid to be there to talk to you — so if you go to them you will find them very open and welcoming. Think about it! For one whole day they will focus only on attracting you to their company — doesn’t that make you feel special? So don’t lose this opportunity to invest some time for your own professional growth.

2. Look for interesting Work Avenues

Whether you are a recent graduate or a professional looking to switch your job, this event provides you with the best opportunity to look for new work avenues. The best thing is that they are all in one place waiting to accept your CV, and tell you about their vision.

3. Get the attention you deserve

Usually when you go for an interview to an organization you are the one in need and they are the ones hiring. At career fairs the situation is reversed. The companies are the ones taking the time to attract you , while you are in a position to ask questions. So learn what you are worth in the industry. This is especially true if you think that you are working in a domain which you think is heading to a dead end. Visiting the career fair will open avenues and give you a good morale boost

4. Practice your skills

This is a lose nothing opportunity for you. You can try taking interviews and learn from your mistakes. If you have any issues with confidence or your communication skills, this is the best oppurtinity to polish those up. Since the pressure in the fair will be much less than what you experience in a interview room, you can relax and highlight your qualities.

5. Learn from others

You can talk directly to people who have been in the industry. If your faith in your industry has been shaken up in anyway, you can meet people present at the fair and on booths who can guide and encourage you.

6. Find your strengths.

You will not see a gathering of such multi dimensional domain people sitting together anywhere else. You can evaluate which domain/field suit you better, what your strengths and weaknesses are, what does the industry require from you as a professional. And then you can work on those skills.

Guidelines for making the best experience

Here are a few basic guidelines for participating;

a. Dress Formally

Though it is not a formal interview, still employers may take instant on the spot interviews. Be ready. Dressing up formally won’t hurt you, but coming in casually might lessen your chances of making a good impression in case of a surprise interview. Also it will distinguish you from non-serious by-standers.

b. Take your CV along

Make sure to take copies of your updated CVs with you. If you have not recently updated your CV or are a fresh graduate/student who has not written a CV these guidelines may help you – here is the link .

c. Be an early bird

The event itself is a taxing process for the employers. Try to get there early in the day when the exhibitors are fresh and energetic.

d. Be enthusiastic

Show your interest when you visit a booth and ask the employer about information you don’t expect to find online. Be genuinely interested in knowing about the company before applying. The most eye catching candidates are the ones radiating energy in such large gathering.

Share :
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Twitter

Facebook comments:

1 Comment

  • seek us up. we are here for your guidance.
    Also i would really like to meet the industry people the CEOs and HR managers to learn about the problems they are facing in hiring the right people.

Leave a Reply


*

Recent Posts

  • General Qurtaba takes their Urdu App to Kindle

    Qurtaba takes their Urdu App to Kindle

    Team at Qurtaba have added another front to their impressive Urdu language based apps, they have launched their Alif Bay Pay app for Amazon Kindle, as well. Earlier it was released on iTunes.

    I love what Qurtaba are doing in a niche area of Urdu Language. Although their start was from Nan-Map for which they now have an iPhone App.There love for Urdu language related apps has been flourishing in recent months. Most of their apps are doing very well on app store, some impressive numbers for their popular Urdu apps are as follows.

    Urdu Writer: 10K downloads in 3 months – average 200 downloads…

    Read more →
  • Featured Startup General Food Connection Pakistan

    Food Connection Pakistan

    I happened to be in Quetta on a business trip last month with no idea of where to dine alone. Being a typical Lahoriite, a die-hard food lover, it matters to me that I try the best food of the place I visit. So this is where FCPakistan came to my rescue. I simply logged in, typed in my desired specifications and got atleast 5 suggestions.

    The listing included their opening times, specific facilities like ease for physically disabled customers, credit card acceptance, smoking areas, take away facility, whether valet parking was available or not, and even directions to get there! What more could you want.

    Although that was the…

    Read more →
  • Featured Startup General FourQuants.com Jawwad Farid’s new venture

    FourQuants.com Jawwad Farid’s new venture

    If you have any thing to do with entrepreneurship, its impossible you have not come across Jawwad Farid either in person or in virtual world of his blogs and judging different events realting to startups in Pakistan.  He is also the author of Reboot which we reviewed a while back.

    Jawwad has been writing on Finance, Risk and Treasury for some time now on learning corporate finance.

    I guess that has lead to  FourQuants.com. FourQuants helps people understand concepts related to finance. Following topics are mentioned in about us section of the website

    • Risk management
    • Derivatives products
    • Option pricing models
    • Basel and capital adequacy regulation
    • Financial modeling
    • Treasury

    Read more →
  • Coffee Session General Marketing/Adv OLX Pakistan Investing heavily in advertisement

    OLX Pakistan Investing heavily in advertisement

    OLX is a global online retailer and auction site. They have an impressive footprint in a little less than 100 countries, each with their own specific domain (like .pk for Pakistan and .in for India).

    In Pakistan they have been operating under olx.com.pk for some time with people using it to sell things online.

    Recently they have started advertising heavily on Television, a medium seldom used by online businesses previously. The ads (two of which have appeared ) are witty and fun to watch.

    The most important factor of these adds is that they are being advertised on media which previously none of our online businesses have used.

    Most of…

    Read more →
  • General TiE, All Asia Business Plan Competition

    TiE, All Asia Business Plan Competition

    Round 1 of TiE is about to reach its completion on 22nd of Jan, 2012 at Marriott, Islamabad in which ten teams will participate. Four teams will be shortlisted for the level 2. I also had the opportunity to participate in TiE All Asia Business Plan Competition 2012 along with my team members in the first few stages of level 1. Although we didn’t have the chance to go beyond stage1 but just participating helped us understand our own idea better and to polish our proposed technique along with development of a solid business plan. TiE all Asia Business Plan Competition provides a platform for generation and development of new…

    Read more →
  • Announcements General Mobile Apps Software & I.T. TenPearls Launches Multi-Platform Mobile Apps for Dawn Media Group

    TenPearls Launches Multi-Platform Mobile Apps for Dawn Media Group

    TenPearls has announced the successful delivery of mobile apps for Dawn.com on multiple platforms,   including Apple iOS (iPad and iPhone), Android and Symbian (Nokia). The mobile apps have received great feedback from the users from around the world. It may be worth mentioning here that DAWN.COM is the #1 English News website from Pakistan averaging over 16 million page views a month, and 3.1 million unique visitors from around the world.

    More details can be accessed at mobile apps for Dawn Media Group by TenPearls.

    Read more →
  • General Second Pakistan Blog Awards by CIO Faces severe criticism

    Second Pakistan Blog Awards by CIO Faces severe criticism

    CIO Pakistan started blog awards last year. Its is a good sign when some one takes initiative and starts some thing new. However its also difficult to introduce this into an already budding field of new media in Pakistan. Last years (or two years back now since its 2012)  Awards were initiated so as it is expected it faced initial growing up pains. It always takes time for such thing to wins the trust of the community. And bloggers are one of the most hard people to win over, most of these are rebels in their own rights people who have started blogging to show the world their opinion…

    Read more →
  • Featured Startup General Do We Vote : A great statistical tool by PakReport.org

    Do We Vote : A great statistical tool by PakReport.org

    Pakreport.org a tool which was instrumental in gathering statistics during the massive flooding in Pakistan, has created another study/stats gathering tool for our electoral activities. Interestingly its called do we vote

    With political scene in Pakistan heating up it provides very valuable information to party supporters and their leaders.  A quick look at it shows the all known facts that people in rural areas take their voting more seriously than all of us supposedly educated and enlightened urban population.

    Pakreport.org was an initiative launched by Faisal Chohan of BrightSpyre during the floods, the effort enabled people on the ground to send sms (the most spread out communication medium in country)…

    Read more →
  • Featured Startup General Stay for the work not the perks

    Stay for the work not the perks

    This is a revelation that came to me when I recently quit my comfy corporate job for the second time. If you are below 40 and some one asks you about how is your job going and your answer is not in tune of “I like my job because I love the work”. 

    You need to pause and asses your career, last time I answered this question my answer was “I like the job, because the benefits are good”, and that made me think (offcourse there were other factors as well). But if you are doing a job in which to satisfy your own self you have to look at…

    Read more →