Finding a job when you are a teen is very difficult. One of the best strategies in my opinion is to attend as many job fairs as you can. So to answer the question I posed in the article headline, Yes, job fairs are a great place to find jobs for teens. There a variety of job fairs, so make sure you are attending the right ones so you are not wasting your time. As a teen, you will want to attend the more generalized job fairs, these will usually have traditional teen jobs like, retail, restaurant and customer service jobs.

Here are some tips to make the most out of your job fair experience:

Preparation is the most important thing. You should prepare the night before and make sure you have plenty of resumes printed on good paper. It is also a good idea to practice answering some basiv interview questions. A piece of advice I give to my clients is have a friend or parent do a role play with you. Another tip I suggest is to videotape yourself. You will be amazed at much you will learn aftter you watch your self on tape.

Dress for success. Make sure you are presenting yourself professionally. I recommend a suit for men, and a pant suit for women. If you dress to impress you will already be way one step ahead of the competition that did not. I am sure you have heard the impression, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, this is especially true when you are job hunting. Employers will make a judgement on you based on how you look. I must admit, I am guilty of this as well when I hire people.

Make as many connections as possible. Make sure you talk to every company that you are interested in. Try to make a lasting impression. These companies will interview hundreds of applicants, it is important that you stand out at the end of the day. Another tip is to get as many business cards as you can and call or email them to follow up. What I have found from my own experience is that usually the person who follows up and is aggressive in pursuing the job will be the person who gets the job.

Going to a job fair, or career fair is not what it used to be with the amount of unemployed job seekers out there too. The basic concept is still there, but it just has a completely different atmosphere with so many companies going under. The vendors are different in the since that there are fewer quality companies that are actually hiring; what you will actually find there are a lot of colleges trying to sell their college courses or online courses that have already been saturated. The only good thing that is provided are some quality Resume Writing Services which provide resume critiquing; these lines are very long in the sense that the average job seeker starts at this line first, knowingly that they are going to stand there for at least two and a half hours just to have an expert analyze their Cover Letters and Resumes. Most people only go to job fairs just for this free service.

As mentioned above, even the job seekers see the lack of quality in today’s career events. But, there are those certain companies that do find their way there; and these are the ones that you need to be prepared for along with every other person in line. When you go to a job fair prepare to stand in a lot of lines with your competitors; but while you are doing this make it worth your while and make some friends and most important network. You would be surprised how much networking you could actually get accomplished.

At least the day before the event start preparing your material so that you are professionally prepared; gather all of your appropriate work history that the hiring companies might inquire about along with any possible skills and accomplishments. Have this information readily available; prepare a very professional portfolio with all of the printed documents that you might need to show in a moment’s notice, even references or certificates. Be ready for anything, your new career could be waiting for you even if you have to stand in line for two hours; maybe you’re the one that they are waiting for.

Now that you have all of the appropriate documents ready for this exiting career event; what about your attire and how are you going to present yourself to these companies or even some possible colleges if that is what you are interested in. You must dress appropriately as in professional; you may not be a suit type of person and that is OK, but at least show that you care how you look and that you show some interest in your personal hygiene. Wear some nice slacks with a clean shirt and blouse or how about a nice dress that is always a good thing, and speaking of dresses please keep in mind of your cleavage. It is very difficult to talk with someone about their career or upcoming position or anything in that matter if you have to concentrate on not looking at the low cut chest with everything in front of you.