Career fairs are an excellent opportunity for job hunting. These events bring a wide variety of companies under the same roof. Rather than cold-calling employers that you hope to work for, you can be sure that the employer at a job fair has come looking for you. However, the competition at a job fair can be fierce and a well-prepared resume is crucial to coming out ahead.

Know Your Target
Most career fairs will post a list of the companies attending on their web page or printed materials. Take the time to carefully read through this list. Target several employers that you think may be a good fit for you. Once you have some companies set in your sights, it's time to research them. Find out about the corporate culture, history, and goals and objectives of the company. Then take some time to consider how you will fit into that company and what you have to offer them. Job fair employers hear a lot of canned answers that could be applied to any situation, so you will have a distinct advantage if you can impress them with how much you already know about the company as well as concrete examples of what you could do for them.

Tailor Your Objective
Once you have targeted some specific companies and positions that you want to go after, you should make your resume fit these goals. The objective section of the resume is often the trickiest at a job fair. Many job applicants tend to rewrite their objective for each position they apply for, and the unpredictability of a job fair takes away the opportunity to custom write each resume. Your first tactic should be to create a clear objective that can be applied to several different companies. The book "High Impact Resumes and Letters" suggests that you write a single, hard-hitting objective that communicates what you want to do and what you have to offer; then apply this objective to all resumes. A second tactic, if you know that there are two diverse job opportunities that you are interested in, is to create multiple copies of your resume. You can also eliminate the objective completely, letting the other information on your resume speak for itself.

Create Your Resume
Your job fair resume should be short and to the point. Keep the information to a single page at all costs. A combination resume is often the best approach for creating a diverse resume for this type of event. A combination resume uses some elements from both a chronological resume and a functional resume, allowing you to present both your skill set and your relevant work experience. Highlight only those skills and previous jobs that will be important to the employer. Avoid providing a long timeline of your previous jobs, or an exhaustive list of skills that don't apply to your field. Keep it focused and concise so that your employer can size up your job qualifications at a glance.