Success is in the Follow Up

  1. Send thank you emails to company representatives that you had meaningful conversations with. Do this soon, within 24 hours of the fair is best. Mention your school so the contact knows at which fair they met you. Include something you talked about together to help remind the company rep of who you are. Keep the email to under 100 words. Attach your resume.
  2. Keep the contact information you collected from the company representatives in a safe, organized place (record it on your phone, or laptop, or safely file it). This is key! Don't lose that business card you worked so hard to collect.
  3. If appropriate, reach out to recruiters or company representatives you met on LinkedIn. Be sure your profile is up to date and matches or the information on your resume. Not all company representatives will want to connect on LinkedIn, but many recruiters will be open to it.
  4. Put follow-up dates on your calendar to reach back out to the contacts you made at the fair. You may follow-up once a month if you are applying for a long-rage hire (ex: applying in Sept for a May internship), or  you may follow-up as regularly as every 10-14 days for a more near-time opportunity (ex: applying in Sept for a winter break work experience). Your follow-up emails should also be brief, and should simply state your continued interest and enthusiasm for the job.

Example of a follow-up email:

Subject: Thank you for your help at the VCU Career Fair

Dear Jane Smith,

I enjoyed chatting with you and learning more about ABC Company at the VCU Engineering Career Fair this week. As we discussed, I'm very interested in sales engineering and would love an opportunity to intern or co-op with ABC.

I have officially applied on-line to your company site, as you suggested, and I've attached my resume here for your reference. I will follow-up with you in a month.

Thank you for sharing your time and knowledge at the fair!

Thanks,
Virginia Ram