Every year, thousands of students line up at career fair booths and walk away with nothing more than a pen and a flyer. Yet with the right preparation, a career fair can be one of the most direct ways to land an internship, an apprenticeship, or a first job in finance.
What career fairs actually do for recruiters
Contrary to popular belief, recruiters at a school career fair aren't there to hand out brochures - they're there to pre-qualify candidates. For a bank, an audit firm or a consulting company, a career fair is expensive (booth, staff travel, HR time), so every conversation serves a business purpose, often tied to an ongoing internship or apprenticeship recruitment campaign.
Large companies use platforms such as JobTeaser 🔗, present in more than 800 schools and universities across Europe, to organize these events and centralize applications generated at career fairs. Some specialized recruitment firms, such as Michael Page 🔗, also attend these fairs directly on behalf of their clients, which widens the pool of opportunities beyond the companies physically present.
What recruiters actually look for at a booth:
- A candidate who can introduce themselves in 30 seconds without reading from notes
- Motivation that's consistent with the sector and the company, not a generic pitch
- Precise questions that show genuine research beforehand
Preparing before the fair
Preparation is what separates an anonymous pass-by from a contact that leads to an interview. Three essential steps:
- Check the list of exhibitors ahead of time on your school's website or JobTeaser, and identify 4 to 6 priority companies rather than trying to hit every booth
- Prepare a tailored pitch for each company: one sentence on why that specific organization, not just "I'm interested in finance"
- Bring several versions of your resume, printed and up to date, adapted where possible to the target role (audit, M&A, asset management)
📊 Learn more: our article on graduate programs and entry-level recruitment details the timeline and expectations specific to each type of program - a useful complement before you target your priority booths.
How to approach a recruiter at their booth
The most common mistake is opening with a closed question like "are you hiring?". Favor an approach that opens the conversation and demonstrates your preparation:
- Start with a specific question about a recent project or piece of company news
- Follow with your 30-second pitch: background, relevant experience, what you're looking for
- Always end with an open question about the role or your interlocutor's own career path
Tone matters as much as content. A recruiter who spends 8 hours standing at a booth will remember a curious, attentive candidate far more than one reciting a memorized speech.
⚠️ Careful: never monopolize a recruiter for more than 5 minutes when the queue is growing - offer to continue the conversation by email, which also gives you an excellent reason to follow up right after.
Following up after the fair
This is the step most students overlook, even though it's often more decisive than the booth conversation itself. Within 48 hours after the fair:
- Send a personalized thank-you email to every contact you made, referencing a specific detail from your conversation
- Connect on LinkedIn with a contextualized message, never an empty invitation
- Formally apply to the roles mentioned, referencing your conversation at the fair in your cover letter
💡 Learn more: if the contact made at the fair doesn't lead directly to an offer, our guide on how to get recruited via LinkedIn explains how to turn a one-off contact into a useful long-term professional relationship.
A career fair is really just an entry point into a broader networking process. Many finance hires also come through referrals - a colleague you met at a booth could well become, a few months later, the person who recommends your application internally.
Mistakes that make you invisible
- Showing up without a printed resume: even in the digital age, most recruiters still expect one on the spot
- Reciting a generic pitch that could apply to any company in the sector
- Asking no questions about the company, which signals a lack of preparation
- Neglecting your outfit: finance remains a sector where dress code weighs heavily on first impressions
- Never following up after the fair, which cancels out much of the effort invested on the day
A clear, well-structured resume remains your best asset to turn a five-minute booth conversation into an interview. With our resume builder, you don't have to worry about formatting or compatibility with the applicant tracking systems used by most large recruiters at career fairs - you focus on the content, the tool takes care of the rest.
Ready to prepare for your next career fair? Create your resume for free in just a few minutes.