HTSS News

Insights and advice about jobs and hiring in the Lehigh Valley.

A Key Tip for Networking at Your Next Local Job Fair

If you’re searching for a new opportunity in the Lehigh Valley, attending a job fair can be a great way to make valuable connections. Of course, these events are always brimming with job seekers like yourself, so simply showing up and winging it won’t cut it.

The key to successful networking at job fairs is excellent preparation. If you want to make a great impression on all the right people, you need to make a game plan and stick to it.

How to Get Ahead at Job Fairs

Research Participating Companies

Chatting with employers you’re not interested in is a waste of everyone’s time, so carefully research each company that will be at the event, and make a list of those that meet your criteria. Use your research to ask well-informed questions that will help you learn more about the organization and make a great impression on the recruiter.

Perfect Your Elevator Pitch

Chances are, company representatives will meet hundreds of candidates during a job fair, so you need to state a strong case — and make it snappy — to stand out from the crowd. Formulate an approximately 30-second elevator pitch explaining who you are, what you have to offer the employer and what makes you different from other job seekers.

Bring Plenty of Resumes

You know you need to bring hard copies of your resume to a job fair, but showing up with a bare minimum probably won’t end well. It’s much better to head home with a few extra copies in-hand, than to be forced to admit to a recruiter that you failed to bring enough to go around. If you think you need 10 copies, bring 15, because you never know what the day will entail.

Dress to Impress

It’s always important to look your best in a job interview, but perhaps even more so at a job fair, because you’re directly competing with hundreds of other candidates. You can be certain these people will show up in their finest interview apparel, so the last thing you want is to stand out because you’re one of the few not dressed to impress.

Promptly Follow Up

Ask each recruiter you speak with for a business card and stay on their mind by sending an email immediately following the event. Keep it short, mentioning how nice it was to meet them and reiterating your interest in the company. Since the person will have met with many other attendees, mention something specific the two of you talked about to trigger their memory of exactly who you are, and suggest a time for a follow-up conversation.

Searching for a fresh start in the Lehigh Valley, Berks County or Bucks County?

View our available job opportunities or contact HTSS, Inc. We won’t stop working until we find the best fit for your skills and interests.

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CEO Letter

As a staffing and recruitment professional for over  30 years, I have seen many changes in the industry. Over that time, I’ve witnessed a transformation in the way organizations view staffing services. Today, we see more and more companies using staffing services as a strategic tool, rather than just for temporary fill-ins.

At HTSS, Inc., our focus is on helping companies create proactive workforce plans. Our goal is to help our clients use staffing strategically to increase capacity, overcome hiring freezes, access specialized talent, better manage increased workloads, and enhance overall productivity.

For our candidates, we help to uncover truly rewarding job opportunities—jobs that are a match to each candidate’s skills, and jobs that offer key experience and growth potential.

We look forward to strengthening our relationships with our current clients and candidates, as well as forming new and exciting partnerships in the future.

Sincerely,

Pat Howells
President
HTSS, Inc.