At Kuder, we work with schools daily to help them engage and support students as they work toward their career readiness goals. We know that a well-planned school career fair can make a lasting impact in that process.
However, organizing a career fair can be a daunting, months-long process for the school counselor or administrator tasked with planning it. From identifying potential exhibitors to promoting the event and facilitating logistics, there is no shortage of work involved.
Our team has provided some tips and resources to simplify the career fair planning process so you can create an environment that gets students excited about their future and helps exhibitors connect effectively with the next generation.
School career fairs, or job fairs, bring together a variety of colleges, universities, employers, and others to meet directly with students and provide them with information on how to take the next step. They provide a valuable opportunity to help students expand their knowledge of what careers are available in today’s workforce. They are also a networking opportunity for area colleges and businesses to connect with future employees.
Knowing the audience of the career fair is important to choose the types of exhibitors and to set expectations. Many school career fairs target high school seniors, who are preparing to enter the job market or pursue postsecondary education. But some career fairs may be open to all high school students, or even middle school students, meaning they should also appeal to students who aren’t as close to solidifying their career decisions.
Knowing the career aspirations of your school’s students will help make the career fair an even more enriching experience for them. Think about what career paths you know your students are interested in. For example, if your school has a large proportion of high school seniors interested in STEM, prioritizing exhibitors in that field will help students make meaningful connections. Keeping this in mind will also help you identify other exhibitors in other fields that could expand your students’ horizons, even if they may not be considering those fields as highly.
Another way to better cater the career fair to your audience is to include students and parents in the planning process. You can also use the results of existing career planning assessments, such as the Kuder Navigator®, to know what areas your students are interested in.
Dig Deeper: For more information on career readiness tools for middle and high school students, explore Navigator.
Career fairs can include several moving parts. They typically include several exhibitors from a variety of employers and colleges, but then can also incorporate organized presentations, panel discussions, Q&A sessions, and more.
If you’re a high school counselor or administrator, forming a diverse planning committee that includes teachers, other relevant staff members, parents, and students, will help gather the variety of perspectives needed to make your career fair more successful.
Committees can also help you divide up certain planning tasks to lighten your workload. For example, a group of staff or students could be tasked with organizing breakout sessions or promoting the event on social media.
You also may be able to plan the school career fair in conjunction with one or more additional schools. If there is a central location that would work well for all schools involved, then it will allow schools to share the load. It could also make the fair a more effective and efficient avenue for presenters who come since they will have access to more students.
While students can gain valuable information and inspiration from simply wandering and exploring a job fair by themselves, equipping them beforehand will help the event be even more meaningful.
Again, if you use Kuder Navigator, let your students identify which career fair booths fit the interests found on their career assessments. You could also organize the fair around the six career fields and 16 career clusters to help students know which areas and vendors fit well with their interests.
Have students prepare lists of questions for employers beforehand so that they can have valuable interactions. Giving them time to research the different career fields that will be represented can help them be more ready.
However, it’s also important to encourage discovery. Giving students an activity that promotes visiting a wide variety of booths — such as filling out a career fair bingo card with spaces that challenge them to visit exhibitors in several specific fields — can help them break out of their comfort zones and learn information they otherwise would not.
Dig Deeper: Looking for more advice on how students can get ready for a career fair? Read our guide for students on career fair preparation here.
An effective career fair should incorporate technology to help students and exhibitors engage with one another. Promoting the event on social media, encouraging interaction on social media during the event, or using digital tools like career fair apps or virtual tours of workplaces, can add a new dimension and extra level of excitement for the event.
Another way to include technology is to feature employers who represent the rapidly growing and emerging career fields like artificial intelligence, health care technology, or cybersecurity. While including established companies is important, staying in tune with Bureau of Labor Statistics data and up-and-coming job fields will help you highlight careers that provide expanding opportunities for students in years to come.
Finally, you can utilize our Work-Based Learning solution to manage and log the career fair as an opportunity or experience for students. This can help them meet their work-based learning requirements, track time, evaluate the event, and more.
Dig Deeper: Want more tips on adding virtual elements to your career fair, or how to make it entirely virtual? Explore our guide to virtual career fair planning for middle and high school students.
Every career fair will have successes and challenges, and taking time afterward to investigate what worked and what didn’t will help make the next one even better.
Anecdotal data from those involved can be helpful, but we recommend collecting data in an organized fashion to better understand how the event went. Sending out an email survey to both students and exhibitors the day after the event will help gather feedback in a structured way.
Some survey questions for students could include:
Some survey questions for exhibitors could include:
Dig Deeper: Find more information in our guide to planning a career fair for high school students. Want even more tips? Our team has some additional advice here.
While a successful school career fair takes planning, we hope these tips will help you break down the process and give you a roadmap to success. The resources included in this guide will help equip you even further to create an engaging career fair for your students and other stakeholders.
The team at Kuder is always here to support you with research-based resources to help your students prepare for their future. Contact our team to learn more about the solutions we provide.
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