Virginia Tech career fairs

Fall semester 2021 VT career fairs

• SEE EACH EVENT WEBSITE FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION, including contact information for questions.
• Details are under control of sponsor and are subject to change.
• CPD has no control over fairs (and their websites) sponsored by other departments, colleges, or students organizations.
• Employers who are new to attending a fair: PLEASE contact CPD Employer Relations staff for advising on which fair(s) might best meet your needs.

PAST spring semester 2021 VT career fairs

• Spring 2022 fair dates will be listed when sponsors published their dates on their websites, later in fall semester.
• SEE EACH EVENT WEBSITE FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION, including contact information for questions.
• Details are under control of sponsor and are subject to change.
• CPD has no control over fairs (and their websites) sponsored by other departments, colleges, or students organizations.
• Employers needing advice on which fairs may best meet your needs, please contact CPD Employer Relations staff who are happy to advise you.

Sponsor/contact for questions: CareerEco.

See the CareerEco Virtual fairs list for all specific fairs and details.

CareerEco hosts a wide variety of career fairs, including focus on populations and career fields. CareerEco is also the platform for some university-hosted career fairs. CareerEco virtual career fairs have included fairs for:

• Architecture and design
• Bank talent
• DVM
• STEM
• Engineering
• Students with disabilities
  
• Diversity and inclusion
• ...and more

For employers with questions about a specific career fair

• There is a contact person for each fair. The VT fairs list above has a link to each fair website, where you can find complete details and contact information.

For employers: advice on which VT career fairs to attend

• For advice on which VT fair(s) may best serve your need, please contact our employer relations staff in Career and Professional Development. We are here to advise and assist you. We know your time is valuable, and that you incur expenses to participate in fairs. With so many VT-affiliated fairs, we understand that choosing among them can be confusing. We want to assist you in selecting events that will work best for your recruiting goals!

Which VT career fairs should students attend? There is no short-cut answer!

• At each fair, a wide variety of employers may participate, and each employer specifies their own hiring needs for majors, academic levels, and types of hires including internships, co-ops, and post-grad jobs.
• Some employers seek very specific majors, and some employers seek a wide variety of majors, both in and outside the sponsoring college or department.
• The employment world is not organized like universities, by majors and colleges, and many employers seek professional qualities and personal characteristics that are not exclusive to a specific major.
• Investigate the website for each fair to learn which employers are participating, their hiring needs, and other protocol of each fair.
• Be aware that the specific individuals representing an employer during a fair might not know about all the hiring needs of the whole organization, especially if the reps are not from their HR department!
• The best way to have success at a fair is to do two things:
  • First, plan in advance which employers to connect with based on your research, and have a customized introduction (Example: I’m interested in your organization because of the opportunity to work in a project team….” Never ask, “what does your company do?”).
  • Second, participate with willingness to be flexible and adaptable in connecting with employers. Be ready for the unexpected, and be personable, friendly, and a good listener.
• Unsure if you are ready to participate in a fair? Then be a volunteer. Being a volunteer gives you a reason and purpose to participate in a fair, and structure on how to interact. For an in-person fair, that could involve helping employers carry supplies, delivering water, etc. That will help you see the event from a different viewpoint, and demystify the event, helping you when you are ready to participate as a job-seeker. To find out about volunteering, look at each fair website, and/or contact the sponsor, and watch for publicity seeking volunteers.
• More on how to prepare for a career fair.
• You are always welcome to seek advising when you are thinking about whether to attend a career fair. We encourage you to plan in advance! Demand for advising is very high when career fair dates are approaching.