The career fair is one of the many helpful resources many universities can offer to you. And while many people have found amazing opportunities from internships to full time job offers at career fairs, that doesn’t make them any less terrifying.

Going into my fourth semester at college, I had yet to go to a career fair. As a freshman, I talked myself out of going with ideas like, “the companies there don’t want to hire a freshman, so what’s the point in going?” First semester sophomore year I had two hours of class during the seven hour time span of career fair and deemed myself “too busy”.

This semester I had no class on the second day of spring career fair so I had no excuse not to go and ventured into my adventure of the first career fair.

I printed a handful of my resume, borrowed a blazer from a friend, a pad-folio from another friend, and confidence from Beyoncé songs I listened to in the car on the way there. I felt like I was ready to go until I stepped into the building and then totally panicked. I didn’t want of the other ambitious students and intimidating recruiters to see me scared, so I walked with my chin up quickly to the bathroom.

There I collected myself and made a game plan. I told myself I was going to go to three of the booths I had researched and then stop at two random ones that I found interesting and would call it a day. I made a lap around the whole arena and finally went to my first stop. It was a smaller company I was familiar with and knew was looking for a student with my credentials. I took a deep breath, walked up to the booth and introduced myself.

To my surprise the recruiter was even more excited to talk than I was. I asked the first question I could think of and he dove passionately into an answer. From there the conversation flowed naturally and by the end he was asking for my resume, instructing me on how to apply for the internship, and giving me his business card, asking me to email him.

I walked away feeling really good about the situation and ready to tackle another booth. The next was a company I was not too familiar with but knew was looking from chemical engineers to hire.

There were only two students talking to the three recruiters, so as I approached the third I thought he was going to be just as excited to talk to me as the recruiter from the last booth was.

He looked me over once and frowned. A little discouraged by his initial reaction, I continued, introduced myself, and asked my go-to question that I had used at the other booth. This recruiter seemed bored by the question and gave me a very condescending answer. He asked me how much I knew about the company and I told him I was familiar with the name and a bit of their work, but by far no expert. By the way he reacted you would’ve thought I told him that my idol was Adolf Hitler and that I enjoyed dead puppies.

That interaction ended with me thanking him for taking time to talk to me then leaving the booth as quick as possible

The entire thing was very intimidating-having to talk to all these establish companies and recruiters, especially due to the fact these recruiters were talking to hundreds of equally smart and qualified students. Despite that one negative interaction, talking to recruiters was very informative and gave me plenty of tips for applying, searching for careers, and attending career fairs in the future.

I thought I would share some of my first time career fair tips that I did or wish I would have done for all the future career fair first timers.

1. Be confident and comfortable in your business professional attire.

This type of attire isn’t something you typically wear every day, so make sure you have picked out and tried on your outfit a bit before the career fair so that when the day comes you feel confident and aren’t distracting adjusting your jacket or wondering if you are even dress appropriately

2. Research, research, research, research!

Research which companies will be there, research what those companies do, research what positions they are offering, and research what they are looking for in individuals they want to hire. This will make the conversation much easier as well as show the companies you are well informed.

3. Make a game plan.

The career fairs are crowded with people and booths and can be a little confusing if you aren’t prepared, so decide which companies you want to talk to before you go in and know where their booths are located.

4. Take notes.

Whether or not the company seemed interested in you for a possible hire, the interaction was most likely valuable in some form. Write down some brief notes after each exchange so that when filling out applications, writing thank you emails, or preparing for next year’s career fair you have something to go off of.

5. Have a few go-to questions ready.

Sometimes you get up to the recruiter and they are extremely excited and ready to tell you everything about the company and sometimes the recruiter expects you to carry the entire conversation. Either way having some general questions ready that would work for any company is a comforting fall back.