Career Fair Questions to Ask Students
Twenty-one questions for recruiters working a career fair table, written for a conversation that lasts three minutes while standing up. They cover what a student is studying, what they have actually built, what they are looking for and when, and how to follow up afterwards.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What are you studying, and what year are you in?
Why ask it
The one question you have to ask, because everything else depends on it. A first-year and a finalist need completely different conversations, and getting the year early stops you pitching a graduate role to someone with three years left.
What brought you over to our table?
Why ask it
The answer sorts genuine interest from the free pens in five seconds, without being unkind about either. Students who name something specific, a product, a friend who works there, a job posting, have done research and deserve the longer conversation.
What do you already know about what we do?
Why ask it
Asking this before you launch into the pitch saves you from explaining what they already know, or from assuming knowledge they do not have. It also reveals which part of your company reached them, which is genuinely useful information for your marketing.
Which class or project have you enjoyed most this year?
Why ask it
Enthusiasm is easier to assess than achievement in a noisy hall, and this question produces some. Listen for whether they can explain why that one, since a student who can say what they liked about the work is telling you what to hire them for.
What have you built or worked on that you would want to show someone?
Why ask it
This turns up the coursework, side project or society role that a resume flattens. Students who light up here are worth twenty minutes later, and those who cannot name anything may simply need a prompt about clubs, part-time work or family responsibilities.
Have you had an internship or a job yet, and what did you actually do there?
Why ask it
The second half matters, because a title at a well-known employer can mean anything. Ask what a normal day involved, and you will hear the difference between someone who was given real work and someone who shadowed.
Which tools have you genuinely used, rather than just heard about?
Why ask it
Phrasing it this way gives them permission to be honest, which produces a far more accurate list than reading their resume aloud. Overclaiming at a fair is common and usually anxious rather than dishonest, so make honesty the easier option.
Are you looking for an internship, a graduate role, or having a first look?
Why ask it
Ask it plainly so neither of you wastes the queue's time. Having a look is a completely acceptable answer, and treating those students well is how you get their application in two years, which is a real part of the return on being here.
When do you graduate, and when could you start?
Why ask it
Dates decide whether any of this is actionable, and students often have constraints they will not mention: a placement year, a dissertation deadline, a visa timeline. Write the answer down, because it is the detail most often lost by the end of the day.
Are you tied to one place, or would you move?
Why ask it
Location kills more graduate offers than salary does. Ask early if your roles are in one city, and ask what would make a move workable rather than treating a no as the end of the conversation.
What kind of day would you want at work?
Why ask it
Better than asking about their ideal role, because students know what they enjoy doing hour to hour long before they know job titles. Answers about working alone, being on a team, being outside, or solving one problem for weeks map onto real roles you can name for them.
Is there a part of this field you already know you do not want?
Why ask it
Easier to answer than a question about goals, and often more informative. A student who says they never want to be client-facing, or never want to work night shifts, has told you which of your openings to stop describing.
What matters most to you in a first job?
Why ask it
Expect training, pay, location and the people, in an order that varies more than recruiters assume. Whatever they name first is what your follow-up email should address, and it is a mistake to reply with the thing you would have said.
What do you want to be better at a year from now?
Why ask it
This finds out whether they think about their own development, without the stiffness of asking about five-year plans. Specific answers about a skill are a good sign, and a blank here is worth a gentle prompt rather than a mark against them.
What has your course not taught you that you wish it had?
Why ask it
Students are candid about this and it tells you where they know they are thin, which is a better indicator of self-awareness than asking about weaknesses. It also gives you something concrete to promise: this is what our first three months cover.
When a group project went badly, what did you do?
Why ask it
The one behavioral question worth using at a fair, because everyone has an example and it takes a minute. Listen for what they did rather than who they blame, and let a nervous student have a second attempt at the answer.
What would put you off an employer?
Why ask it
Turning the question around gets you honest answers about the process as well as the job: no reply for six weeks, five rounds of interviews, unclear pay. Take the answer seriously, since it usually describes something your own pipeline does.
What questions do you have that our careers page did not answer?
Why ask it
This hands the conversation over and shows whether they prepared. It also surfaces the things your published material fails to explain, which is worth reporting back to whoever writes it.
Who else on your course should I be talking to?
Why ask it
Students know who is good, and being asked is flattering rather than intrusive. A named recommendation from a peer is one of the better leads you will get from a fair, and it costs nothing to ask.
What is the best way to follow up with you, and when?
Why ask it
Ask for the email they actually read and any dates when they will be unreachable, such as exam weeks. Agreeing the timing makes your follow-up expected, and being the recruiter who follows up when they said they would is a genuine advantage.
Is there anything you would like me to remember about you?
Why ask it
A generous closing question in a hall where hundreds of students blur together, and it lets a quiet person say the thing they came to say. Write their answer on the back of the resume before the next student arrives, because you will not recall it later.
Working the table
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
A three-minute conversation
- 1Open with the course and the year, then adjust everything else to what you hear.
- 2Ask two questions from the middle of this list, no more. A fair is not an interview and a queue is forming behind them.
- 3Give them ninety seconds on what your roles actually involve, aimed at what they just told you mattered.
- 4Agree one next step out loud: apply by a date, email you, or come to an event.
- 5Write two words on their resume or in your notes before the next person steps forward. Anything unwritten is lost by lunch.
Adjusting to who is in front of you
First and second years
They are not applying yet, so use the time to be memorable and useful. Tell them what to do this year to be a strong candidate later, and they will come back.
Finalists
Get to dates, locations and the application route quickly, because they are counting tables and time. Being precise about deadlines is more valuable to them than another description of your culture.
Career changers and postgraduates
Ask what they did before, and be careful not to talk to them as though this is their first job. Their previous experience is often the most relevant thing at the table.
The nervous student
Some students have rehearsed one sentence and nothing else. Ask about a project rather than about themselves, give them a moment, and you will often meet a much stronger candidate in the second minute.
What to avoid
Running an interview at a fair
Questions about handling pressure or greatest weaknesses do not work standing up in a noisy hall with people waiting. Save them for a scheduled conversation where the student has a chance of answering well.
Questions you are not allowed to ask
Keep away from age, family plans, health, religion, nationality and anything close to them. If work authorization genuinely affects eligibility, use only the wording your recruiting or legal team has approved.
Talking for the whole three minutes
If you have not asked a question in the first minute, you are presenting rather than recruiting. Students remember the tables where someone was interested in them.
Collecting resumes you will not read
Taking a stack you never open damages your reputation on campus faster than anything else. Take fewer, note why each one is there, and reply to all of them.
Ignoring the ones who are not a fit
Tell them plainly and quickly, then point them somewhere useful: another employer at the fair, a different route into the field. This is remembered, and it is the cheapest goodwill available.
Afterwards
- Send follow-ups within a week, while they can still place your face. After a fortnight you are one of forty tables.
- Reference the specific thing they told you about. A generic mass email undoes the conversation you just had.
- Reply to everyone you took a resume from, including the noes, and say what would make a future application stronger.
- Note which courses and which questions produced the best conversations, so next year's table is better aimed.
- Pass on what students said your careers material failed to explain. That feedback is one of the more valuable things a fair produces.