(This article was originally written in April 2005.)

Last Wednesday we attended the spring career fair at Drexel University. Other than steadily rising temperatures in the gymnasium where the event was held, this was a very well-run event that gave us the opportunity to meet many recent and soon-to-be college graduates, some MBAs, and other job seekers in various states of their careers. Although the bulk of the attendees were Drexel graduates or students, there were also people who had attended other area schools such as the University of Pennsylvania and Temple.

A job fair is, almost by definition, a mass-processing event. Employers are there to meet as many candidates as possible. Job seekers are there to meet as many employers as possible. As an employer, we're really only interested in:

• A copy of your resume. This is our main tool for remembering you and evaluating you. We don't have time to do it at the fair, so we're going to go through the resumes carefully later. If you don't have a resume to leave with us, we're very unlikely to remember you.
• Communications and presentation. We're a consulting firm, so this is really important to us. Can we understand you? Can you dress appropriately? Do you maintain eye contact when speaking to someone? Did you just ignore my partner at the table when she offered her hand? We can get resumes from want ads, but the job fair enables us to get a quick understanding of the surface traits.
• An understanding of what you're looking for. Not every person is a fit for our company, so if we have a minute or two we'll try to learn what it is that you want to do.
• A chance to answer your questions about us. If we have a moment or two, we can tell you more about how the company works and why it might appeal to you.

In the space of five hours we had more than a hundred people stop by and visit our table, and all but a few left us their resumes. Although many of the visitors to our table made solid first impressions with us, it was also apparent that a large number of them didn't know how to get the most out of the job fair. Some additional tips:

Bring a ton of resumes

This job fair had more than 250 employers and 1,100 job seekers, and your resume is pretty much the only way we're going to know who you are. Since we average about one visitor a minute (or more!) during peak times, we're only going to have time for a very brief conversation, and even if we like you we're going to want to write a quick note about you somewhere, and it's going to be on the copy of your resume that we tuck into a folder and take with us. Every single person we met this year had a resume to give us, so if you don't bring one, you're going to stand out in a negative way.

Fair or not, 80% of what we get out of a job fair is contained in the folder of resumes with which we leave. The other 20%, however, is based on our quick impression of you, so...

Dress like you care

We recognize that not every college student owns an Armani suit, and that some people only get to stop into the job fair in between classes. Nevertheless, 90% of the attendees are in suits and if you're not you'll look a little awkward in comparison. At the very least, look like you care. The gentleman in the ratty baseball cap and sweatshirt didn't stop by our table, but he would have been wasting his time if he had. A few other visitors looked like they hadn't found a barber in the area yet.

Notice that I'm not ranting against long hair, eyebrow piercings, or other stylistic expressions of individuality. While some companies still prefer the conservative look, that's not the point. The point is that you don't have to look like you stepped out of the pages of GQ or Vogue to be professional, and if you're going to go to the trouble of attending a job fair you should at least give yourself a shot at making a good first impression.

Do your homework first

Drexel hands out booklets at the fair that tell you what each employer is looking for (by major.) It was very easy to look up a company before visiting that company's table. A lot of people wasted our time and theirs by not checking first. On the other hand, several people had clearly visited our web site in advance and had a solid understanding of our company, and that can only help.

Trust that the employer representatives know what they're doing

I'm the president of the company. I was wearing a name tag with my name on it, right under the logo on my polo shirt that also has my name in it. I was pretty amused when candidates asked me if I would forward the resume on to "the right people." Apparently there are some other people somewhere to whom I should be giving these resumes! Once you've handed in your resume, you've done your job, so please let us do ours.

Don't be offended if it isn't a fit

We thought this job fair went very well, and we'll probably do it again next year. The quality of the candidates was higher than other fairs we've attended in the past. But out of roughly 120 resumes, we disqualified 40 or so before we even left the table. These are people who were unable to communicate or dress appropriately for our audience. Of the remaining 80, we identified seven with appropriate skills, and we will follow up with all seven of those. That means only a small percentage of candidates will even get interviewed - it's the nature of the industry.