Prepare for the Virtual Career Fair

 

PREPARE FOR THE VIRTUAL CAREER FAIR

By Stuart Esrock, Ph.D.

The ACC/SEC Career Fair is coming up soon.  Like any career fair, you need to get ready for the event if you are going to maximize the potential of obtaining interviews for full-time or internship/co-op opportunities.

But, as has been the case during the COVID pandemic, this career fair will be a virtual event.   That means some additional preparation is necessary beyond what you would do to get ready for a face-to-face career fair.   Since you may not have participated in a virtual career fair, or even a face-to-face career fair, experts recommend that you be sure to follow these tips for what to do before, and during the ACC/SEC Fair:

  • Register for the virtual career fair ahead of time
  • Update your resume and social media profiles, especially LinkedIn, and be sure to upload an updated personal profile to the virtual career fair website
  • Research participating companies in advance, plan who to visit with and prepare questions
  • Schedule individual appointments with employers in which you have an interest
  • Practice your pitch
  • Check your technology in advance to be sure everything will be working when the virtual career fair starts
  • Pick a quiet, distraction-free location
  • Dress professionally as if you were going to be meeting in-person
  • When meeting with employers virtually, be sure to employ good non-verbal communication with attentive body language and eye contact
  • When talking to employers, take notes, get contact information to follow-up, ask about next steps and always be sure to send thank you notes the following day

For more information on how you can stand out from the competition in virtual career fairs, check out these articles:

And, don’t neglect that important follow-up.  Here’s an article on what you should do after the ACC/SEC Career Fair.

Remember, the campus-wide, all-majors ACC/SEC Career Fair is on April 6, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.  More than 150 employers will be involved.  All UofL students and alumni can register on CareerEco and schedule chat times with recruiters.  

 

Please note that because this is a consortium career fair with 28 other universities, registration is through the CareerEco website, not Handshake.