As an expert on career management, I find many students making similar mistakes at the job fairs I go to. They have their suits on, but not the necessary confidence to go with it. They are shaking hands, but not looking recruiters in the eye. They are sometimes asking about a job’s salary before handing in a resume! So if you keep these helpful do’s and don’ts, in mind I can almost guarantee you will land any job that you desire.
Do: Make a good impression.
For instance, if a recruiter asks you why your major is finance, a good answer is, “Because I am passionate about business.”
Do not: Say the wrong things.
A bad answer to the question above is, “I looked at a list of majors and figured I could get by in this one for four years and then hopefully get a job where I do not want to die. Before, I was a political science major, and there aren’t too many companies clamoring for a 20-something with a strong knowledge of voter distribution in Ohio.”
If you say this at a job fair the recruiter might think you would not be a team player or a real go-getter at whatever company he or she represents. Plus they might only pick up “political science” and then immediately tune you out as someone that is responsible for doling out jobs.
Do: Shake their hand.
Give recruiters a firm grip. Look them in the eyes like the professional you are pretending to be.
Do Not: Not shake their hand.
You know how you have that nervous tick where you dig your forefinger into the skin by your thumb? Don't do that at the job fair because, oh God, you broke the skin and your hand is bleeding and now you have a timer on yourself because you literally cannot shake the recruiter’s hand again until the blood dries. You need to make this conversation about your experience with Microsoft Excel last about five minutes now. Is it weird to go for the left handed handshake? Probably. Let’s be real, you can’t go for the fist bump at this point, either. There is no way this 60-year-old white man from Pepsi is going to be impressed with that. What happens if they see blood on your hands? Would they kick you out of the job fair? Probably, but I’m not the job fair police.
Do: Let them know if you have any special accommodations.
An example of this is, “Is your company’s building wheelchair friendly?”
Do Not: Let them know your current medical situation exactly.
For instance—let’s just say hypothetically because there is no way this event actually happened to me—during the job fair, you get close to a panic attack by seeing what your future might be. So you go to the bathroom and begin to think that you have an STD because of some poorly placed bumps that have not gone away. And you have a cold sore. And you are the type of person who never gets cold sores. Plus some things happened a few nights ago, and, uhh, let’s not get into it.
So you go to the office of the one nurse you know because she probably knows what’s going on. And there is no way you are waiting for the free clinic on campus to open. Anyway, she tells you that you’re in the clear, you just have some funky bumps and an anxiety disorder. Then after that incredibly awkward interaction, because she proceeded to show you every STD on the planet that is possible to contract, you go back to the job fair and they ask something like, “Hey, how are you?” You should respond with something like, “Good,” and not, “Relieved that I am STD-free.”
See both “Good” and “Relieved that I am STD-free” are synonymous, but I’d encourage you to take a moment to think about why one is appropriate to say at a job fair and the other is not.
Do: Sell your soul.
Say things like, “I could see myself being passionate about raw materials.”
Do Got: Break down crying when you realize, that at this point, your only option is grad school if you do not want to enter the world of doing financial statements and saying words like “synergy” and “streamline.”
Because while job recruiters are there to meet you, remember it is not their job to hold you in their arms and wipe away your tears with their laminated name tags.
