How to Make a Lasting Impression at a Career Fair

Alright, so you’ve done all your prep for the career fair, and the event is upon you. How do you ensure that you stand out compared to all of your peers who will also be attending? Since you and your peers will likely have pretty similar resumes (there’s really only so much experience you can expect a college student to realistically have), your best bet is to let your personality shine through. Let the recruiters see you for who you are and how you would fit into their teams. Read on for tips on how to manage this.

Dress to Impress.

Professional wear is a must for a career fair, meaning suits, slacks or skirts with blouses, professional dresses, whatever floats your boat under this broad umbrella. But if I could make a suggestion? Even just looking different from the crowd can make you stand out from it. A career fair is a good place to play with patterns and colors since it’s not as formal as an interview. For those opting towards menswear, I guarantee that you will see about thirty guys wearing this exact shirt. As an alternative, a lavender or forest green shirt can be different without feeling too flashy. If you’d prefer to experiment with pattern, a fine stripe or a small repeating pattern can upgrade a look without making you look like Mystery the Pickup Arist. Those leaning towards women’s wear have even more options—from patterned dresses to chic shoes to a statement blazer, women’s clothes have a lot to offer the stylish job seeker. So keep it professional when it comes to the overall look, but don’t be afraid to express your personality, too.

Have a Little Fun with Your Resume.

This is one of those pieces of advice that you should absolutely take with a grain of salt. Some industries, like law, banking, and accounting, may not appreciate you taking a more creative approach to your resume: Times New Roman and black-and-white reign supreme. But in a lot of other industries, you’ve got more wiggle room to personalize things. A pop of color in the header and pull-out box can bring a little pizzazz without being distracting, and charts that show your skill levels are certainly eye-catching. Even just ensuring that your layout is super-easy to read can be a relief to hiring managers looking at resumes that are walls of text. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the “pink and scented” route to give it that little something extra, but it’s worth taking the time to make your resume just a little unique. (But, again, only if your industry isn’t white-shoe conservative—standard is best in those cases.)

Ask the Folks at the Booth About Themselves.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” I think about this Maya Angelou quote all the time, but especially when I want to make a good impression on people. I know that your first instinct is to pitch yourself to this company as fast and as well as you can. Efficiency is a good instinct to have in situations like a career fair, which are inherently fast-moving. But I would advocate taking just a moment to talk to the recruiters at the booths as if you two were meeting in a more casual setting. Something as simple as “Wow, there are a lot of people here, huh?” or “Have y’all been busy today?” can be enough to get the person at the booth to drop their guard for a moment and speak to you like a peer. Or perhaps even a colleague? Regardless, taking a moment to ask the person at the booth how their day has been going or if they’ve been enjoying the career fair can really warm that person up to you, making you much easier to remember when it comes time to sort through resumes. I think that being not just polite but genuinely interested in the people you talk to can take you very far in life, and that counts at the career fair, too.

Take a Deep Breath and Relax.

Career fairs are nerve-wracking, that’s no secret. You’re trying to make a good impression on perfect strangers very quickly, and while I can guarantee that everyone you meet will be friendly, I can also guarantee that saying so doesn’t relieve the nerves. One of the best ways that you’ll be able to stand out is if you don’t let the nerves get to you. People will pick up on your emotions, and if you’re relaxed and confident, you’ll leave a much more positive impression than if you come across as tense and uneasy. This is one of those tips where I say that it’s a “nice to have”, if you can manage it. And if you can’t quite put the nerves away, well, you’re probably in good company with the rest of your classmates at the career fair.