It’s that time of year again. With spring around the corner, job fairs will begin popping up all over and Go For It! Career Consulting wants to make sure you’re prepared.

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In a world where electronic communication has become the norm, face-to-face networking is both a rarity and something to be taken advantage of. You can find local job fairs several ways.  Simply searching Google for job fairs in your city or town should generate results. Google Alert allows you to be notified via email when new job fairs in your area are announced. You can also connect with a government-run career center in your area. Find your locate One-Stop Center here.

While you’ll want to prioritize your booth visits and target the companies you’re most interested in first, be aware of tunnel vision. The biggest mistake job seekers make is just dashing out the door after speaking with their target companies. Go For It! Career Consulting shares the following tips to get the most out of job fairs:

• If you have the time, be sure to stop at every company booth. While you might not be interested in working for every company, it could be a great networking opportunity.
• Obtain business cards from all company representatives that you meet.
• Follow up with every representative you met within 48-72 hours after the job fair. An email will usually do. Also try to connect with them on LinkedIn.
• Talk to other job seekers at the event. You never know who they might know or what tips they might be able to share.

Take charge of your job search and ensure that you are utilizing your time as efficiently as possible.  Call Go For It! Career Consulting today for a free consultation.

This post is brought to you by Dana Westerfield, Career Consultant at Go For It! Career Consulting and is intended for information purposes only.

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There are several words in the English language that I am less than fond of, but there’s one in particular that I truly despise. *Insert drum roll please*

Should. Yes, that’s it. Are you surprised? Seems like an innocent enough word, but keep reading. Eliminate the word should from your vocabulary and you will see a difference. You will feel a difference. Nothing good ever comes from this word. Think of all the time you spend or have spent ‘shoulding’ yourself. I should do this. I should do that. I should’ve done this. I should’ve done that.

Let’s start with the present tense. “I should” is not a definitive action plan. It’s most likely a reflection on something you know might benefit you, but you most likely lack the intention of actually doing it. Where does that leave you? Inactive and probably feeling guilty. You’re either going to or you’re not. It’s really that simple.

Now let’s move on to the past tense. “I should have” or “I shouldn’t have”. Talk about guilt and regret central. This past tense ‘shoulding’ mentality is dangerous for various reasons. Ruminating about something you cannot change will cause you to become stuck in a negative feedback loop. Learn from your experience and move on. More importantly, trust that in any given situation you made the best decision possible at that moment. Hindsight is always 20/20, right? The information and knowledge available to you after the fact doesn’t count. Stop beating yourself up.

So repeat after me. I either want to or I don’t want to. I’m either going to or I’m not going to. And when all was said and done, I did the best I could.

Very often we underestimate the influence that fear has on our decision making process. Do we take the new job? Move to the new city? Change careers? Fear has a distinct ability to undermine our goals and can keep us from moving towards what we desire most. We can easily become stuck in a negative feedback loop of “what if this” and “what if that”. This is what I say about FEAR:

Don’t FIGHT it … This will only fuel its fire. Don’t try to FORGET it … It will only work harder to let its presence be know. FEEL the fear … Lean into it and sit with the discomfort. More often than not, once we can do this, we gradually realize that there was nothing to be afraid of. This doesn’t mean that things will always go our way or as planned … This just means we discover that we are strong enough to handle whatever comes our way.

FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY.