What to do now that the career fair is over

Now that the career fair is over, there are a few things to do in order to strengthen the connections you’ve made, keep in touch, and make sure you’re on the companies’ radar for upcoming opportunities. A checklist:

Inventory the contact information you have.
Did you remember to get contact information from all of the company reps you spoke with? If you’re missing contact information, reach out to the Newhouse Career Development Center and we can help you.

Send a thank you note in a timely fashion.
Ideally, thank you notes are sent within 24 hours of an interview, but it’s NOT too late to send one now to career fair recruiters if you haven’t yet done so! You can also include any themes you may have left out or not had time to discuss during your conversation through the career fair. Finally, your “thank you” should be a handwritten note, unless you know that the decisions are being made quickly or your meetings were group sessions (in these cases it’s ok to send an email). Check out our tips on writing thank you notes here.

Reflect on what you were told during your meeting.
When do they plan to make a decision? Were you instructed to do something specific, like send in your résumé or apply to a position through the company’s website? If the recruiter mentioned that you can email to follow up on certain details, your thank you note is a great place to ask those questions.

Follow up as instructed.
If a company rep told you that someone would be in touch, but you haven’t heard within the timeframe provided, the first thing to do is to check the spam/junk folder of the email address on your résumé to make sure you didn’t miss anything. If there’s nothing there, make one short, friendly follow-up to express that you’re still interested in the position and looking forward to hearing back. Noting that you know you were supposed to wait but that you are still excited about the opportunity and are looking forward to the next steps will suffice. If you are also sending your thank you note by email, you can combine these messages.