Abbey Saddler

Talent Executive

Zack Slovina

James Sullinger

Senior Account Executive

Katherine Ortiz

Jen Antill

Senior Talent Executive

Maria LaTour

Marketing Manager

Susie Isphording

Strategic Talent Executive

Ryan Van Echo

Chief Operating Officer

Ryan Smith

Managing Director

Olivia Skaates

Strategic Account Executive, Emerging Markets

Morgan Toney

Account Coordinator

Lauren McCuen

People Operations Coordinator

Kyle Benton

Managing Director, South

Angela Wayner

Strategic Account Executive

Ariel Smith

Deborah Andrews

Director of People Operations

Deborah Day

Tony Haislar

Alan Kutasy

CEO + Founder

Rob Moyer

President + Co-Founder

Whether you're in school and seeking your first job in the real world or looking to embark on a new career path, attending a career or job fair is a smart step for marketing yourself to potential employers. On top of the unavoidable anxiety that comes with job seeking, how can you stand out among other attendees and make a memorable first impression with potential employers? Follow these 5 tips to make the most of your next career fair.

Before going into a career fair, it’s incredibly beneficial to know what companies you plan to connect with to optimize your time (after all, you’re likely attending to get face time with company reps). Once you determine which companies you’d like to network with, review their websites to understand what they do, their core values, community involvement, and any social media channels to understand their culture. Ultimately, can you see yourself working with this company? 

After researching the companies, you can craft a more tailored and personal introduction. This is the perfect opportunity to: 

Hi, I’m John Smith, and I’m currently interning as a social media marketing intern at ABC Marketing here in Columbus. I noticed that your team recently completed a massive project with a healthcare client and increased organic traffic by 20% YoY by implementing the right mix of media, awareness building, and acquisition. One of my passions is connecting data to creative content and testing out messaging based on desired target audiences to drive conversions. I’d love to hear more about your team’s project and what you do at ABC!

Approaching the company booths with intention and understanding who they are and what they do will help set you apart from other attendees – it’s a win-win! 

While it may feel “out of date,” bringing hard copies of your resume to a career fair shows your interest, drive, and professionalism. Make sure your resume is up to date 

Don’t have a printer at home? No sweat. Your local library is an excellent resource for more than just books, and they can help you print copies for less than $0.50 per copy. We recommend researching how many company booths you’d like to visit (see #1 above), then double that number for how many copies to bring with you.  

This is simply an answer you give to the most asked “So… tell me about yourself?” question. This is your chance to show off who you are and your accomplishments in 30-seconds or less. Our Talent Executive, 

 or, in this case, as an intro to a potential employer. 

Like after a job interview, follow up with the individuals at the company booths you networked with and are interested in pursuing a career. While at the career fair, jot down notes such as big takeaways from your time with the organizations. This will help keep you organized once you leave the career fair. 

We recommend adding the individuals you networked with on 

 and sending them a quick note about your time with them. This will help you stand out among all the attendees they talked with and leave a great impression! If you discussed a specific role with the company, you can use this as an opportunity to ask about next steps. 

Along with networking with the companies, take advantage of other benefits of attending a career fair. For example, the organizers may offer attendees professional headshots or a resume review station. 

Who doesn’t want a free professional headshot to update their LinkedIn or Handshake profiles when job seeking? 

This information will be included on the career fair’s webpage if it’s being offered. 

These ad-hoc opportunities can help build your professionalism and help you understand how you can best stand out among the crowd! 

 with you to the career fair! This is what shines through when you meet people (aka potential employers), and the above will help build that key confidence. These tips will undoubtedly set you up for personal and professional success when preparing to attend a career fair – you got this! 

So, you’re getting ready to attend a career fair 

Have you ever attended a local meetup?  

Chances are those groups run entirely off volunteering efforts. It’s the people who work their full-time job and then, come early to the event to set up tables and chairs and leave late to clean up trash and put things away once everyone leaves. They spend their free time planning speakers, ordering catering, and organizing a meeting space. This is ALL done so others can come and share their passion for a common interest.  

As a recruiter, networking events are crucial for me to get involved in the Columbus tech community. For many years, I went to events as they popped up on my Meetup calendar and when they would fit in with my schedule. I tried to find ones where I could attend consistently, but as a non-technical individual in the IT community, you can sometimes feel like a bit of an outsider at some of these events. 

Then, I met @Elizabeth Tolia. She introduced me to her passion, which is Columbus 

 (Women in Technology) and their annual conference. She invited me to buy a ticket to their conference and check it out. Before the keynote speaker had even finished, I knew I had found an organization I could get behind.  

I continued to stay in touch with Elizabeth, asking how I could get more involved with GetWitIt. It usually ended up with me coming to their monthly/quarterly meetup events and helping set up tables and chairs and then sitting at the check-in table (which is still my favorite place to be!). I have now volunteered at all the local events, the annual conference and am now the Director of Local Events for the Columbus chapter within a year of getting involved. This is all because I attended networking events, volunteered and found an organization I was passionate about, and asked how I could help.  

 could get involved in an organization you're passionate about - 

If you are going to donate your valuable time to an organization, it’s important to make sure it’s a good fit. Here are a few tips to keep in mind: 

Why volunteering in the tech community is so important!

At Agility Partners and as the Local Events Director for 

, hosting events that allow our community to come together and network is a cornerstone. In light of COVID-19, we are having to make major adjustments – canceling in-person gatherings, scrambling to reschedule, or like so many are doing, going virtual. With many of us now working from home, using digital communication platforms is become a bit more of the “new normal”, with Zoom happy hours, Microsoft Teams meetings. But can we still network virtually? 

Of course, we can still network virtually! 

First, find events that are interesting to you 

If you’ve been an avid meetup attendee, odds are you’ve already seen some of your regular haunts turning towards virtual events. Remember that time you really wanted to hear a presentation but traffic leaving work was going to make you late? 

Now you have even more reason to attend! A perk of working from home means the only traffic you’ll encounter is possibly a family member or rogue pet on the way to get logged in. 

Things that were interesting to you before, are still interesting now. So, reach out to the leaders of those meetups you love, and ones you have been interested in joining and see what they are offering in the upcoming weeks. 

Why is it important to still attend events? 

Virtual events still offer the opportunity to meet new people and learn new skills. While being at home more initially seemed like an introvert’s dream—myself included—it is easy to quickly feel isolated. These events provide the chance to still get out of your comfort zone while never leaving the comfort of your home! 

How to get the most out of a virtual event 

Nothing is worse than giving a presentation and hearing crickets each time you ask for questions or tell a joke. Virtual events are no different. Many video platforms offer chat and reaction features so you can still be engaged in a presentation without interrupting. In the end, ask questions and create a dialogue with the speaker and other attendees, I can promise you they’ll appreciate it. 

The option to multitask through a virtual event can be tempting but try your best to limit distractions, especially if you are sharing your camera. To get the most out of an event and potentially find people to network with after, you’ll need to be paying attention to the person speaking as well as those who are engaged in the presentation/chat areas. 

Follow up with feedback and send connections to the people you want to network with. 

Virtual events are new to many of us, for these to continue to be successful and grow all hosts will need feedback. If audio was hard to hear or you felt information could have been shared differently, your hosts want to know. What works in person, does not always translate to a screen. Together with proper feedback, we can build even better events. If you’re wanting to expand your network, it’s as easy as sending a LinkedIn connection and message to a person who made an insightful comment or posted an interesting question. A personal note goes a long way. 

Will virtual events replace in-person gatherings? The short answer is no. People like to be together, even us introverts. Nothing in the virtual world will totally replace chatting with a speaker after a session or being able to network face to face. I do think we will see a continued trend towards digital and hybrid events or more supplemental virtual content. 

The most important piece is that we still give ourselves the opportunities to engage with each other, even if it is virtually! 

Virtual events – Is this our future of networking?

A lot of us are spending our free time online now more than ever before. One thing that’s caught my attention is how many new pet parents there are. How many times have you gotten on social media since this quarantine started and saw someone adopted a new pup? 

Getting my own dog has been something I’ve wanted for years and before I knew it, I found myself posting a photo on social media of my own new puppy. 

While I was nervous to take on such responsibility during this uncertain time, all my prior excuses were no longer valid, and I knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to be able to dedicate my free time to a new friend.  

But then…. I wondered how this was going to affect my productivity during work hours? 

I decided I wanted to get him on a Friday so the first couple of days I’d be able to dedicate all my attention to him and get him settled into a routine. To my surprise, when Monday arrived, he slept all day. Also, to my surprise--he was completely potty and crate trained! 

So many people feel like their worlds are getting smaller now, but, as I find myself in week five of quarantine and week three with my new friend, I’ve found that having a wagging tail and begging eyes following me around while I go through my daily routine, made my world that much bigger, and held me that much more accountable. 

So, what are you waiting for? There are so many furry friends out there that are looking for their home.  If you aren’t sure about adopting one just yet, think about fostering one, until you’re ready, or just as a one-time thing during quarantine. 

A “new” coworker 

COVID-19 has completely changed most, if not all of our day-to-day lives, (unless you’ve literally lived under a rock and just happened to crawl out to read this post) practically overnight. Terms like “social distancing” and "physical distancing" have become common in our homes. Massive hoardings of toilet paper, baby wipes, and other “bathroom aides” have quickly become the norm (why?!). We are no longer meeting one another in person and if we do, fist bumps are likely how you’ll be greeted. No handshakes. No hugs. No physical contact of any kind. 

Something else that has likely changed (or will likely) for you is your work environment. Many of us have parts of our job that can be done remotely yet don’t. Whether it’s something you’re just now adjusting to or something you’ve done for years, understanding the intricacies of a successful work from home model is key to being productive while keeping your sanity. 

Here are a few tips that can really help out yet don’t require “major” shifts in your typical routine: 

Set rules, have a plan, and stick to it...

Setting up your days and weeks is critical to being focused and productive. It’s even more critical to have (and stick to) a plan while working remotely. One of the benefits of remote work is flexibility - Be transparent and hold one another accountable. Set up blocks of time to complete specific tasks. Have scheduled “touch base” times (no matter what) to help make sure everyone is on the same page. This could mean starting your day a few minutes earlier or ending a few minutes later, just to accommodate others. Being in a home office allows for that flexibility. 

Another key tip is to set ground rules with other people in your house (if applicable). Just because you're home and usually take care of the kids, dogs, and grocery shopping doesn't mean others should assume you will always do it just because you’re “home more”. Working from home can have some blurred lines, so setting clear “work times” is important. Don’t get taken advantage of as your productivity and mental health can truly suffer. However, being alone and loneliness are more common when you don’t leave the house so make sure you take time off if you need it! Be deliberate with your time. Set rules for when to work and when to call it a day. It will help you maintain a productive work-life balance! 

Understanding when to start work at the right time is one thing but creating a routine that works for you while you WFH (work from home) is another. What do you do each day to help indicate you're about to start work? I like to grind some beans and brew a cup of coffee. For you? Maybe it’s returning home after a run/work-out or getting dressed in “work clothes”. The more of your routine you can keep consistent, the more working from home can have of that "everything is changing" feeling. 

CC everyone (just kidding)! But seriously, clear, concise and multiple forms of communication are all a MUST. Each time you communicate something to another person virtually, ask them to repeat it back to you. The same goes for when someone tells you something, repeat it back to make sure you have the needed clarity to move forward confidently. It takes a few extra seconds, and everyone is on the same page. In today’s world, we have a lot of messages bombarding us at all hours (How many alerts you've gotten on your phone while reading this??). To make sure the most important information makes it through and sticks, just repeat it. 

Whatever information is important, say it until you feel like you’ve repeated yourself too many times, then say it again. 

Everything has changed... but not everything has to

Everything has changed... but not everything has to. 

A common saying in job searching is that “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. Unemployment numbers have skyrocketed due to pandemic-related layoffs, leaving an increased number of job searchers in a space where they must compete on a limited number of employment opportunities. Now more than ever, it is important to leverage your existing network in your job search.  

A common misconception that I’m hearing from job seekers is that they can’t network due to the pandemic and stay-at-home orders. Networking events are still happening, they’ve just shifted to be virtual meet-ups through a variety of video conferencing platforms. Even before the pandemic, Agility Partners was diligent about being involved in networking events in the Columbus market.  

Every week the Agility Partners team gets together to discuss upcoming events, and whom from our team will be attending. Agility Partners has also hosted networking events in the IT space, working with speakers 

 on discussions around React Native and Test Automation. Three great avenues we use to find networking events are:

If this pandemic has you finding yourself feeling like you don’t know where to begin your search, in such a rapidly changing market, please don’t hesitate to connect with our team. You can do this by signing up for 

) and refer yourself or your network for jobs. Even if you’re not sure where best to apply, sign up today and one of our talent executives will contact you and help find the best fit. 

Networking during a pandemic

“Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that, so it goes on flying anyway.” Mary Kay Ash

In high school, I ran track. I should have never been let on the team. I was the slowest runner on the women’s team and I’m not being hyperbolic. Numbers don’t lie. I don’t think I ever passed a member of my own team. I shouldn’t have run, but we were the best high school track team in our division, going 13 seasons with an undefeated regular-season record. I never won a race, but I would go on to complete a marathon 9 years later, something only .5% of the US population has done. 

I received my Bachelor of Arts at the University of Dayton. I shouldn’t have even been admitted. My ACT scores were well below the school’s average and my math abilities actually landed me in a sub 100 level course my first year. I shouldn’t have gotten in, but I did and went on to become the Co-Manager of the campus television station and recognized with the Omar Williams Award for Outstanding Student in Broadcasting. 

I received my Master’s in Communication from Texas State University. There’s no way anyone from my youth would believe this was possible. I was a horrible student growing up with undiagnosed learning disabilities. It was the only school I applied to and I didn’t even think I would get in, but I went on to present a paper at the Western States Communication Conference and our school even won Outstanding Communication Program with the National Communication Association. 

I completed my first Olympic distance triathlon recently. Though I have done a marathon and competed in Sprint Triathlons, years of running and general aging made training difficult, and at one point (hell, MANY points), I thought about throwing in the towel. 

Why do I keep doing this to myself? Why do I keep taking on these challenges? Everyone I’m competing against is better than me. They deserve to be here. I don’t deserve to be here.

How many times has that thought crossed your mind when you try something new? Imposter Syndrome is a 

feeling of inadequacy that can persist despite evident success

Though it was originally theorized to impact women more frequently, both men and women can experience this inability to internalize success. It has haunted me for as long as I can remember, despite all that I have achieved and all that I have overcome. 

With just 3 more miles to go on my run, my mindset changed. 

You ARE here. How many people are at home, still sleeping? You are HERE. It doesn’t matter if you feel you deserve to be here. You’re already here. Keep running.

So, as you tackle this day and the challenges that come with it, remember that you deserve to be here. You deserve the success that you have achieved. You deserve to SHOW UP. The only commonality in all of my success, big or small, is that I showed up. I showed up to the track team try out and clocked the slowest time, showed up to orientation at a school I wasn’t qualified for, showed up to turn in my paper for a conference I didn’t think I’d get into, and showed up to compete against seasoned triathletes. And while I’m not a scholar or an award-winning producer or even a fast runner, I gained experiences that elude those who stay home.  

I shouldn’t have this job. I was happy with the job I had but was starting to feel like I wasn’t creating value. I wondered if I could make an impact in a more challenging environment, but it felt selfish to look. I should have just gone home but instead, I went to a happy hour and ended up meeting Rob Moyer and Alan Kutasy. 

What are you going to show up for today? 

Why volunteering in the tech community is so important!

Virtual events – Is this our future of networking?

A “new” coworker

Everything has changed... but not everything has to

Networking during a pandemic

Showing up