19 Oct 09 How to prepare for your first job fair

Last week I asked the following question on LinkedIn:

What advice would you give to someone who will be attending their very first job fair?

Many unemployed workers are finding themselves in the job market for the first time in many years. Some have never been in the job market before. What advice would you give to such a job seeker? I’m looking for help in setting expectations, etc. This is also going to be for a blog post at http://getthatjobonline.com and will immediately go out to some local folks who will attend a job fair in the coming weeks. Thanks for your help!

I am glad that I received so many responses, and you should definitely check out what others have said, since the advice is too numerous to include in this post.  One of the many noteworthy responses came from Doug Field, who is a training manager, course developer, and instructor in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina area:

Rent a copy of Hello, Dolly! starring Barbra Streisand as Dolly Levi; watch the first 10 minutes several times and pay particular attention to how Dolly treats everyone she meets as a potential employer or source of work.

I did some research on YouTube and Wikipedia to see if I could find a short video clip to illustrate what Doug was talking about, and this is the closest thing I found. I’m not sure whether this is what he’s talking about or not. The song is “Call on Dolly” from the musical “Hello, Dolly“:

Anything more to add? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

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• Online News Association Job Fair (cyberjournalist.net)

Other Ways to Get That Job!

Tags: Barbra Streisand, Hello Dolly!, job fair, job market