How Job Fairs Can Help Executives

You may have participated in job fairs at the entry-level stage in your career; however, by the time you reached mid-career, you probably left them in your rearview. Now that you're between jobs, a career fair has presented itself. Now, in the executive level of your career, you're thinking about visiting one.

So do you go, or is the prospect simply beneath you? Many executives can be found at career fairs for sometimes surprising reasons. Let's take a look at how an executive could benefit by attending a career fair.

Networking

Unlike the main reason that entry-level job seekers attend job fairs (to walk away with an interview), at the executive level, you want to attend the job fair for networking opportunities. It's not every day that you're able to speak with hiring managers and decision makers from a huge selection of companies or even industries.

Of course, you can go to other networking functions to get the job done, like social events or board meetings. However, when a representative of a company is at a career fair, he's on the job and is more open to talk of business. They will be ready to talk about their companies and prepared to answer your questions, with materials like business cards on the ready.

Improving Your Interviewing Skills

On some occasions, you will find that representatives from companies will be ready and willing to interview potential candidates right on the spot. These opportunities are fantastic for honing your interviewing skills. Regardless of whether you want the job, the interview's a valuable bit of practice that you'll profit from later.

Even if you don’t run across interviewing opportunities at the job fair, you can still utilize your “elevator speech” during this time. An elevator speech is a very quick description of your professional life, including qualifications and who you really are, given in a quick time frame that would fit into the space of an elevator ride. A few well articulated elevator speeches can make a big impact at a job fair, and are certainly far more effective than simply handing out your contact information.

See If You Can Gain a Speaking Spot

One way that you can benefit from the job fair at the executive level is to speak at it instead of simply showing up as a job seeker. A good speech can deliver important and helpful information about your industry, while helping you master your own goals for the job fair. When you're done speaking, instead of having to hunt people down, you'll have dozens of people coming to talk with you.

It may not have crossed your mind to visit a job fair at this stage in the game, but it’s definitely not a bad idea to consider it. You don't stand to lose anything, and you'll have a better chance of finding exciting new opportunities. Ultimately, the opportunities from the job fair might be endless.