21 Oct 5 Benefits of Attending a College Job Fair

If you are getting ready to graduate from college, then you should definitely check out a job fair or two on campus before you finish school. If you go somewhere like USC Online, then you might want to check into job fairs at the closest university. This way you can get a head start on your job search before you graduate when the pressure is really on. Here are 5 benefits of attending a college job fair.

1. Start Networking

There’s nothing like face time when it comes to job hunting. Whenever an employer posts an ad for a job opening they are going to be looking at a lot of resumes. In that stack of resumes, there will only be a few people that the employer has seen or spoken to, and if one of those people is you then you will have a huge leg up on your competition. When you start shaking hands, it’s effectively like getting an early, low-pressure interview before anyone else does.

2. Weigh Your Options

College job fairs are great because you can get a very good idea of what kinds of jobs will be available to you when you graduate. In some cases, you will even be able to find jobs that allow for a little mobility.  The point is that you will know a lot more about what kinds of options you have and what kind of careers are available to you based on your field of study. Plus, you won’t just be looking at a website, you will be speaking to potential future colleagues, which will tell you a lot about what the work environment will be like.

3. Get Ahead of the Curve

Depending on the job you’re applying for, there may be so many applicants that the employer won’t even have a chance to read all of the resume submissions. In this case, the resumes that come in first are the most likely to lead to interviews. Plus, by turning your resume in before everyone else, and in no person no less, you will really make a good impression on hiring managers.

4. Get the Inside Scoop

When you read a job description and the basic criteria for any job, you are only getting a very narrow idea of what the employer is looking for. However, when you go to a job fair, you will have the opportunity to talk to someone who works for each and every business or organization and you can ask all kinds of questions. Even if you can’t think of many questions in the moment, there’s a pretty good chance that the representatives you will meet will load you up with tons of information that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

5. Save Money on Travel

Most people don’t just want to apply for each and every job posting that seems marginally interesting after visiting a website. They want to make a trip out to the actual workspace and get a feel for what it’s like to work there. If you are considering taking a job in another town, then your travel costs could really add up. However, when you go to a job fair, you can get a pretty good idea of what things are like in that business just by talking to their representatives. That way you can save a lot of money by narrowing down the actual number of jobs that you’re seriously interested in.