Attending a Career Expo is a great way to get in front of a bunch of employers. Usually you will give them your resume and they will give you their business card at the end of your interaction. They might ask you to apply for the position on the company website but then what? What do you do if they didn’t tell you to apply and just gave your their business card?
The answer to both of those questions is REACH OUT! If you were told to apply and you are interested in the position I would apply first. Then after the application is completed I would reach out to the person you talked to at the career fair. You could either reach out on LinkedIn or email them. In the message make sure to thank them for the conversation at the Career Expo and then let them know that you have applied for the role you guys discussed. Finally, end your message by saying that you look forward to hearing from them.
If you did not talk about a specific role or they did not explicitly tell you to apply for a role then the message is a little different. the start of the message would be the same, thank them for the conversation at the Expo. Then the next part will vary a little, you can try to set up a coffee meeting or just a meeting at their office to discuss potential roles. This meeting will allow you to get to know them a little better as well as them to get to know you a little better. You will be able to talk about roles and maybe even start the hiring process.
