"Dress for the job you want, not the job you have."
That old adage still holds true according to Ryan Naylor from Localwork.com.
"Casual professional dress is appropriate," said Naylor. "A lot of folks do wear suits and ties or dress up. It's up to you. Look at the types of employers at the event. You want to do your research."
Over the next seven days, there are three mega career fairs taking place in the Valley. Naylor's company is organizing one of them.
"Job fairs are all about testing you. So if you show up to an event unprofessionally (dressed), with a bad haircut or like you just rolled out of bed or wearing flip flops, they're going to assume that's how you're going to show up to work every day," Naylor said.
He's seen it. People with bed head, tank tops, even ankle monitoring bracelets visible. He said employers will try to weed out the serious job seekers from the people who were forced to come, maybe because of unemployment requirements or because a parent made them.
"Employers are going to give you actions they want you to do. So they may say go apply online," he said. "Don't get discouraged and think I could've just avoided coming to the event because a lot of times that's a test to see if you're going to follow through."
Naylor suggests bringing a stack of resumes and talking to everyone. Even employers from companies you aren't targeting.
"A lot of times we go and judge a book by its cover," he said. We see pest control company and think well I'm in IT, I don't want to go kill bugs. The reality is that company might have a big IT department that they're hiring for."
If you need a resume template or job hunting tips, you can find that here.
For more information on the Localwork.com job fair, click here.
For more information on the Coast to Coast job fair, click here.
For more information on the law enforcement job fair, click here.
For more on current Valley job openings, click here.
