I’ve been attending a series of job fairs recently with my job. I don’t mind them that much; gets me out of the office and I get to meet new people and put a face on the organization.
Most of the candidates I meet have their "elevator pitch" down, which is good. It helps me zero in on what sorts of positions to discuss with them. But here’s the part where almost everyone is losing ground. When I ask them what they are looking for and get one of these answers:
1) Anything
2) Well, what have you got?
My organization is quite large, and we have a number of recruiters. I don’t know every job open for every department. So these two responses are really wasting my time, especially when there is a line behind the candidate to talk to us.
All job fairs have a list of employers posted before the fair. Candidates should take the time to look at the websites of these employers and bring *specific job descriptions* with them to ask recruiters about, including job codes that can usually be found on the website with the job description. It would also behoove them to bring a targeted resume along with that job description to submit to the recruiters in attendance. If the candidate is prepared in this manner, I can pair his/her resume with the job description and then route their resume to the recruiter that is handling that specific job.
If you find yourself attending job fairs in the future, please do yourself and potential employers a favor and come prepared.