Spotlight for Career Services Professionals

Career services practitioners who are already thinking ahead to next fall are looking for ideas to increase student attendance at their career fairs. Here are some ideas shared in the NACE Community:

• Ask faculty to become career development ambassadors, doing classroom presentations through faculty partnerships.
• Ask faculty to award extra credit for career fair attendance and then recognize those instructors as "faculty champions."
• Offer students who meet with three or more employers a raffle ticket for a prize drawn near the end of the career fair.
• Have students take a punch card to at least three employers to earn a free treat/soft drink coupon from campus food services.
• Award door prizes (a journal imprinted with the career services office name) to the first 75 students who attend.
• Partner with deans, academic advisers, and communication teams at colleges within the university to focus on helping students learn why the career center exists, why internships are valuable, and how career fairs will help them learn about new organizations and potentially find jobs.
• Post a general announcement the week of each event for all students on their job-search account.
• Seek faculty co-sponsorship for networking nights.
• Host outdoor fairs in a central location and pray for good weather.
• Host "outdoor office hours" once per week with a branded EZ-up tent to get the word out about what the career services office offers. Offer quick walk-up advising.
• Offer free Linkedin portraits to attendees.

Add your ideas and suggestions for boosting career fair to the discussion in the NACE Community.