How to organise a careers fair from scratch

As a future pathways counsellor, one of my responsibilities is to help my students explore various career paths. However, I realised that there was a limit to how well I could describe what it’s like to work in business or as a doctor. 

I can show students the university curriculum of the study pathway, suggest TED talks to watch or books to read, and even organise sessions for alumni to speak to them. However, I cannot offer insights from lived experience. Guest or alumni talks address this gap but are naturally limited in their scope. 

That’s when I realised the benefits of a careers fair. A fair would bring together representatives from various industries, who would be able to offer diverse, first-hand insights, all in the span of a couple of hours.

However, these couple of hours usually take months to organise. Last month, I hosted the second careers fair at my school and wanted to share some of the lessons I learned about planning a smooth and effective event.

Starting off

1. Pick a date and arrange the venue

At a school, there are always multiple events going on. Pick a date early and ensure that it doesn’t overlap with other major events, both academic and extracurricular. You’ll probably need a large venue so double check whether this is available for the actual event and the set-up as well. 

2. Start recruiting early, with clear communication

After you pick the date, create a one-page poster to circulate to potential volunteers with all the necessary info. Include the date and time, expectations from volunteers and industries you’d like to be represented. Ensure this goes out at least two months ahead of the arranged date to ensure enough time to recruit participants. 

Finding participants

1. Ask the parent community

If you are working at an international school, the chances are that your parent community is comprised of people with interesting and important jobs. Make use of this. 

Arrange a chat with the leader of the PTA to let them know that you’re organising a career fair. If the PTA has monthly meetings, consider attending one. This is a great opportunity to affirm the connection with the parents and the school, so vouch for this benefit to your senior leadership team as well. 

2. Ask the alumni

As with the parent body, the alumni of your school are likely to be doing interesting and important jobs. Ask around and present the exciting opportunity of connecting with and inspiring the current students. If they can’t join in person because they’re abroad, consider having a virtual element to the fair. 

3. Recruit the help of SLT and the admissions team

The senior leadership and admissions teams can play a key role in helping you find participants because they often liaise with external parties. Highlight the benefit of this event in strengthening external partnerships.

4. Speak to teachers

Some teachers may have moved into education from another career – which means that they may have an interesting previous life to share. For instance, I recruited our biology teacher, who has a PhD, to represent the industry of “scientific research” to our students. I believe it was a pleasant experience for her and for the students as well, because they got to interact in a different way. 

Also, teaching staff may able to help with recruiting other participants in the fair because they may have connections with local community members.

Planning the content

1. Include panels or small-group discussions

The main part of the fair should involve students chatting directly to the representatives. However, consider including more structured elements, such as a keynote speech, moderated panel discussions or breakout discussions. 

For instance, I created and moderated discussions on “Turning failures into successes” and “Careers in a changing world” and had representatives from different industries share their insights. Hearing a lawyer, a magazine journalist and a manufacturing leader talk about the impact of AI on their industry, or a pharmaceutical rep, finance rep and educator muse about their own failures in their careers were synergistic additions to the fair. 

2. Include questions for students to ask

Students may not know what to ask the reps. To remedy this, I created 15 questions they should ask reps and put this in the individual flyers I handed out at the fair entrance. The reps were given flyers as well, so that they knew what to prepare for. 

Elevating the event

1. Find a theme 

Finding a theme can bring a sense of cohesion to the event. For the most recent iteration, I combined university and career fairs, so it was titled “Life after high school”. A fellow counsellor in my city planned his fair around the theme of “Squiggly careers”. 

2. Recruit student volunteers

In the first iteration of our school career fair, I didn’t have enough manpower to welcome the guests as well as coordinating everything. For the second iteration, I delegated the former task to the student council. I paired a student with each guest and had the students chat to the guests and show them around the school. The student council instantly became more invested in the event and the guests felt warmly welcomed the moment they arrived – a win-win situation.

3. Provide tokens of appreciation

We provided a free lunch for the guests, which served as a possible networking opportunity for them, and also for the SLT. Afterwards, I prepared a nice gift and wrote personalised letters with the help of the admissions department. It was extra work but I wanted the guests to feel truly appreciated for taking time out from their busy day.

Final touches 

1. Prepare a feedback survey for students and guests

At the end of the fair, I gave students and guests a feedback questionnaire. Feedback from the first iteration of the fair helped me make the second fair better. 

2. Plan for contingencies 

Event organisation can be really stressful, with seemingly a million moving parts beyond your control. It’s helpful to plan for all scenarios ahead of time, and accept that it’s OK if not everything goes perfectly. I found that reviewing some breathing exercises and self-soothing techniques was necessary too.

Although it may be stressful, organising a careers fair is well worth it. Seeing your students connect directly with industry representatives can easily be a highlight of your year. Good luck, and happy planning.