A booth with a long queue and no plan produces stacks of resumes and few hires. Know how to recruit at a career fair: set a goal, run the same short conversation with every candidate, and record each person so they reach your tracking system.
That is the whole workflow, and each part is covered below by the problem it solves. It sits within the wider set of tech recruiting events guidance, which also covers choosing which events are worth attending.
- Before the event: decide what the fair is for and who staffs the booth.
- At the booth: keep each conversation short, structured and tied to the role.
- After the event: make sure every candidate is recorded and followed up.
Setting goals before you choose the event
A career fair recruiting strategy for tech starts with a goal, because the goal decides how you staff the booth and what you measure. A recruiting guide on Recruiting Blogs asks employers to define their recruitment goals first, such as raising awareness, collecting resumes or building the employer brand.
Match the goal to the way you work
- Hiring for open roles: prioritise screening depth and bring people who can judge technical fit on the spot.
- Building a talent pipeline: prioritise capturing complete contact details over long conversations.
- Raising awareness: prioritise a recognisable booth and clear messaging about what the company does and the roles it fills.
Pick the main goal and let the others follow it. A team that tries to hire, build a pipeline and promote the brand in the same short conversations usually does none of them well.
Decide how you will measure it
A LinkedIn article on hosting career fairs suggests counting how many people were sourced, interviewed and hired. Agree these counts before the event so notes and records are kept in a form that can produce them afterwards.
Staffing the booth and planning for volume
Fairs can be crowded. The Recruiting Blogs guide describes average student attendance of 1,441 at 2020 job fairs, and fairs with over 200 organizations and around 1,400 job seekers. A booth at that scale cannot give each candidate a long interview, so the team needs defined roles.
Who should stand at the booth
The LinkedIn article recommends including hiring managers, as they excel at screening and interviewing. For tech roles this is practical advice. A recruiter can explain the process, while a hiring manager can judge whether a candidate’s experience fits the team’s work.
What the booth says about you
Brief every person on the team on the open roles and on what makes the company a good place to work, because candidates form an impression from the people they meet. Presentation matters too, since a well-presented booth can help a company stand out among many others.
Screening conversations at the booth
The same short conversation with every candidate is the most reliable way to screen quickly. The LinkedIn guide advises keeping interviews well-structured and brief, which suits a busy fair where others are waiting.
A simple conversation outline
- Greet and ask what they are looking for. This shows whether any open role fits before time is spent.
- Take the resume during the talk. The University of Texas career services office tells candidates to hand over the resume during the conversation rather than waiting until the end, so a recruiter can refer to it while talking.
- Ask a few job-related questions. Use the same set for every candidate, drawn from the skills the role needs.
- Explain what happens next. Tell the candidate how to apply and when to expect contact.
Keeping screening fair
Fair screening means judging candidates on the same job-related criteria. A summary of EEOC priorities from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights states the agency’s aim to combat employment discrimination and ensure equal employment opportunity for all. The same page says screening tools should only measure traits and skills directly related to job performance. That statement addresses automated tools, but it is a sensible test for a booth conversation too.
- Use shared questions: a consistent set makes candidates comparable.
- Write job-related notes: record skills, projects and role fit, and leave out impressions unrelated to the work.
- Agree criteria before the fair: a team that disagrees about what a good fit looks like will screen inconsistently.
The LinkedIn guide also advises making notes about candidates who caught your eye. Write the note straight after the conversation, while the details are fresh, and attach it to that candidate’s resume or record.
Capturing candidates for the applicant tracking system
A candidate you cannot find after the fair is a wasted conversation. The LinkedIn guide advises collecting candidates’ resumes and contact details, and the point of doing so is to enter them in the applicant tracking system quickly.
Use one record format
Decide before the event which fields every record carries: name, contact details, role of interest, a short job-related note and a next step. Whether the team uses a tablet, a shared form or paper, the same fields make bulk entry into the tracking system simple. Where a candidate prefers to apply directly, point them to the application page and still record the conversation.
Follow up promptly
The University of Texas career services office advises candidates to follow up with each employer within 24-48 hours after the fair. Expect those messages, and have your own records ready so you can reply while the conversation is still fresh. Send decisions or next steps to the candidates you rated well first.
Fairs are not the only place to meet tech candidates. If an in-person event is impractical, see how to host a virtual career fair, and for project-based events read do companies recruit at hackathons.
Troubleshooting common booth problems
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Queue builds and candidates leave | Conversations are unstructured and run long | Use the short outline, with the same questions for every candidate, and move on once it is done |
| Strong candidates cannot be recalled afterwards | Notes were not written down at the time | Write a job-related note straight after each conversation and attach it to the resume |
| Technical questions go unanswered | Only recruiters staffed the booth | Add hiring managers, who are suited to screening and interviewing |
| Candidates follow up and nobody replies | Records were not entered promptly | Enter records soon after the event so replies can go out within the 24-48 hours candidates are advised to use |
| Results are hard to judge | No goal or counts were set beforehand | Track sourced, interviewed and hired candidates against the goal |
These points draw on the LinkedIn career fair guide and the University of Texas career fair advice.
Frequently asked questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Will candidates bring paper resumes? | Many will. The University of Texas career services office tells candidates to bring at least 20 resume copies, so keep a folder or tray at the booth and label each resume with your note. |
| Should recruiters carry business cards? | Yes. Candidates are advised to ask for a way to contact the recruiter before leaving, such as a business card or email address, so have one ready to hand over. |
| What should the booth communicate about the employer? | It acts as the organization’s public face, according to Recruiting Blogs. Show the open tech roles and what the company does, so candidates can see quickly whether to join the queue. |
