CV for a job fair or recruitment event: how to prepare

At a job fair a recruiter gives you a few minutes, standing up, with ten other people waiting behind you. Your CV has to make sense in ten seconds, and so does your pitch.

Updated on 5 October 2026

Job fairs, recruitment events, speed interviews: what recruiters actually do there

A job fair brings employers, training providers and employment services together in one place, often free to attend. A speed-interview event is shorter and more targeted: quick conversations, sometimes by appointment, with recruiters who have vacancies to fill.

Either way the principle is the same: you talk for a few minutes, they take your CV, and it is after the event that the recruiter sorts what they collected. Your CV has to work twice: during the conversation, and that evening, in a pile of fifty others.

Before: register and choose your stands

• Check how the event works. Some are free to walk into, others require registration, or even applications to specific vacancies in advance to get an appointment. Read the organiser's page: it is the reference.
• Look at the exhibitors as soon as the list is published and choose five to eight you really want to speak to. Five prepared conversations beat twenty stands skimmed.
• Read their vacancies. For each one, note two required skills you have already shown in practice.

The CV to bring

One page, readable standing up

The recruiter holds it in one hand and listens to you with the other. Aim for one page (see one or two pages), a readable font and a top section that says everything: name, job title, a three- or four-sentence summary, contact details.

A job title that matches the stand

If you are aiming at different roles depending on the stand, do not hide what you want under a vague title. Adapt the title and the summary to each family of roles: it takes twenty seconds in the editor and makes the CV look written for them. For the method, see the CV summary guide.

Three figures, clearly visible

In a short conversation, a number sticks where "versatile and motivated" slides off. Re-read your recent experience and keep three concrete results: volumes handled, deadlines, team size, targets met (see quantifying achievements). If you do not have a reliable figure, do not invent one: a precise fact beats an approximate number.

Printed, and in several copies

Bring more copies than stands: you will sometimes be asked for a second one for a colleague. Print at good quality and carry them in a folder so they do not crease. Keep the PDF on your phone too, with a link to an up-to-date professional profile if you have one.

The two-minute pitch

You will almost always be asked "tell me about yourself". Prepare an answer in three parts that you can say in thirty to forty-five seconds:

1. Who you are: your trade and level of experience ("I have been a healthcare assistant for four years, in a care home and then in home care").
2. What you have actually done: one achievement, with a figure if you have a reliable one.
3. Why this stand: what, in their vacancies, matches what you can do.

End with a question, not a silence: "Which profiles are you prioritising for this role?" or "What are the next steps in the process?" A good question shows you read the vacancy.

During: making the most of a few minutes

• Arrive early if the event allows it: queues are often shorter.
• Start with a lower-priority stand to warm up, then move to the ones that matter.
• Write down each person's name and what was said as soon as you leave them. You will need it to follow up.
• Ask for a card or an email address so you can send your application if the recruiter does not keep your CV.

Afterwards: the follow-up that makes the difference

It is the easiest step to forget. Within forty-eight hours, send a short message to each person you met: remind them where you met, what you talked about, attach your up-to-date CV and suggest a next step (an interview, a call). Three sentences are enough. The message reminds the recruiter who you are among all the CVs collected.

Then apply to the vacancies you discussed, mentioning the meeting. If the application asks for a cover letter, see how to write a cover letter; and for the conversation that follows, preparing for a job interview.