You’ve seen the advert in the newspaper. You’ve read the web site, perhaps several times. But how do you find out what it’s really like to work at a company? You may be lucky enough to have friends or family members already working at the firms which interest you, but otherwise you need to seek opportunities to meet some people who work there. Along with open evenings and university milkround events, graduate recruitment fairs and exhibitions are ideal ways to do this.

Graduate recruitment fairs come in all sizes, from gatherings in university buildings, to large-scale shows in venues such as the NEC in Birmingham, or the Excel Centre in London. Firms fill the hall in droves, set up stall with branded backdrops and piles of glossy brochures, and mountains of key-rings, and attempt to publicise their opportunities and entice graduates towards them.

The shows often also include a range of useful features such as CV workshops, presentations by employers, and career advice seminars.

While it’s rare these days that you will be interviewed on the spot or be offered a job as a result of meeting somebody at a recruitment fair, the shows can be invaluable ways to gain further insight into a company’s culture, opportunities and business, as well as to make contacts, if you use them to their full potential. Use this Milkround.com guide to ensure that you get the right result.

Make sure you do your research beforehand. All the shows have web sites, which list the exhibitors. If there are companies you are particularly interested in, it’s well worth making sure you’re familiar with what they do. Having a level of understanding and familiarity will create a very positive impression; not doing so will do just the opposite. The Exhibition EGREX comments on its web site, “most recruiters expect you to know what they do and expect you to be able to sell yourself to them. They are asked hundreds of times by students "So what do you do?" and it can become rather frustrating!”

Be well dressed as if for an interview.

Do bring copies of your CV, especially if you want to take advantage of a CV workshop. And although many employers nowadays ask you to complete their online application forms, you should have a CV to hand in case somebody asks you for it.

Try to be relaxed and be yourself when talking to exhibitors. They are keen to see if you would fit into the team at their company, but on the other hand are not asking for a killer punch-line in every sentence! If you smile and make eye contact, you will go far on first impressions.

Be prepared to answer questions about your career motivation – what areas you wish to work in, and what draws you to them. Some people can speak naturally and at length about these matters. If you’re not one of them, run through your ideas, perhaps on paper before the show, so that you have a ‘spiel’ ready.

Have some questions to ask the employers that interest you. It may be that you have some burning questions, which the fair is an ideal opportunity to resolve. If this isn’t the case, you would be well advised to think of some to demonstrate interest, and create a positive impression in the recruiters’ minds. A good way to approach a stall might be to say you’ve heard of the company – ‘ah, PricewaterhouseCoopers – I’ve heard of you’. You can quite often make this humorous, particularly if it’s a large firm, conveying your familiarity with the field and with the business world (as if not knowing who PwC are would be ridiculous, for example).

Don’t approach your favourite employer first. Instead have a couple of conversations with employers which interest you less, in order to familiarise yourself with the kinds of questions they ask, and to get into the swing of things.

If you have a good conversation with somebody, try to get their business card or email address. This is so that you can follow up your chat with a further note to underline your interest in the position(s). Provided you are courteous and strike the right note between professionalism and enthusiasm, this will rarely do any harm to your application, even if it’s not able to influence the outcome.

Bear in mind that the personnel attending the events will be a combination of human resources representatives, responsible for the graduate recruitment processes and some of the decision-making; and managers and trainees within business areas, some but not all of whom will also have some input in the selection process.

You will find in many cases that your application is via an online application form, and that you don’t have the chance to direct it to the person you spoke to. However if you are able to send them an email so that they have your name in mind, they may, if they were impressed by your enthusiasm and knowledge, be willing and able to put in a vote for you.

As stated above though, it’s perhaps most realistic to see exhibitions and fairs as information-gathering exercises, rather than a step towards landing a job.

Finally, sort through the reams of paper you collected, choose and attach your favourite key-ring, and get those applications off! Hopefully you’ll have found an abundance of opportunities and employers to get enthusiastic about. Bear in mind though that the range of vacancies in your chosen field will be much broader than that represented at an exhibition – use Milkround.com’s comprehensive databases of employers and jobs to continue your research and get the fuller picture.