Whether you are at college seeking a summer internship or already full-time but waiting for a chance for a job hop after a career fair is simply the best choice for you to meet future employers face-to-face. By meeting the PR staff from the company, it offers the opportunity to directly introduce yourself to the recruitment team and can get your questions answered.
It would be more than helpful if you can make a nice first impression. After handing out your resume to the team, it is important to ask for a business card (physical or digital) from the recruiter. But do not simply let their information sit in your address book, it is even more important to write a follow-up message to further enhance their impression of you.
Though a lot of people are intimidated by showing up in the recruiters’ email inboxes, these tips will give you the chance to reiterate your career interest and stick your name top of their minds when opportunities arise.
When to follow-up
Before jumping into follow-up formats, it is important to talk about the appropriate time to follow up. Usually after a busy day at the career fair, the recruiters would be too tired to immediately go through the piles of resumes they have received from candidates. Not to mention the arduous task of adding people to their contacts book.
So this is not the best time to show up in their already crowded email lists. But rather, one or two days after the career fair, when their memory about you is still relatively fresh and when they are organized again to be prepared for the recruitment, this is the best time for you to slide in their mailboxes to strengthen their impression of you.
How to follow-up
Making personal connections with companies and individuals will aid you in being a trusted source of communication. For yourself and those you reach out to, you don’t want your outreach to look like a phishing scam. CRM app Covve is helping you understand phishing scams and word your message in a cordial, trustworthy manner, which is an important factor if you want to reach your recipient’s inbox and prompt a response.
Usually a follow-up is passed through email rather than messages or calls as it is a more acceptable business formal communication channel. Some important features that the email should have are: specific, professional, polite, and clear. To let the recruiter know exactly who you are, mention how you met and reiterate your interest in the position.
Even better, take this chance to add another highlight of your experience to give them another reason to remember you. This can be, your past internship, a certificate you earned in the industry, a web page about you, and many more valid options. The secret sauce here is DO NOT just ask for the job but take more effort to show how you are qualified for the position.
Here’s one example on how to draft a nice follow-up email.
Foll-up Template for Reference
Hi Tim,
It was my pleasure to speak with you yesterday at the career fair in Chicago. Thanks for letting me know so much exciting news about [The Company] and the extraordinary opportunities [The Company] is offering.
I want to reiterate my great interest in the [Position title]. I believe my past experience as a [experience title] goes along with [The Company]’s mission to [XYZ]. As we talked at the career fair, I am confident that my background can help [The Company] to expand greater influence in the market.
In addition to the resume I left with you at the career fair, I have also attached to this email a marketing report on the results of my work at [Past Company] and as well as a link to my online portfolio.
Thanks again for all of your help, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Amy Brown
What’s Next?
Sending a follow-up email is important for the recruiter to have a solid impression about you and such impressions can stay even longer if you manage to stay in their address book. To establish future connections, the quickest way would be to add them on LinkedIn. From your daily LinkedIn activities, your impression will be further strengthened to save you the opportunity for future open positions.
If you did leave a business card with the recruiter, they may be too busy to copy down the information to their address book. But, giving a digital business card would save time and effort for the recruiters. In the follow-up email, you can add a link to your digital business card that has all of your contact information, including your LinkedIn profile and personal website. Another trick is to simply download the address book app to be more organized with your contacts and networking.
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CRM tool acts as a secretary: It allows you to set custom alerts and reminds you of when you have important meetings coming up or when to follow up with contacts. It can be set to give you weekly scheduling reminders.
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Benefits of being “green”: In case you’re wondering, digital address books allow you to go paperless and create business cards electronically. Through an app, you can send your business cards with one-tap, view who you’ve sent your business card to and any notes you might have added, and lastly, customize your card fields to select which details you want to send.
Overall, a CRM tool gives you the information required to be up-to-date with your business contacts and maintain your relationships.