What do you think about being seen at the careers fair by your current employer? Good thing (you're ambitious, they see they need to keep you happy at next promotion round or risk losing you?)? Or bad thing?If you were employed by one of the big firms and were thinking of moving, would you go knowing that they are one of the exhibitors?Thoughts appreciated. Simon

The chances of the poor HR chimney sweep that gets sent along to sell the company knowing you are slim.Alternatively, if the big guns are out because your firm are actively recruiting you can volunteer and have perfect cover to chat to anyone all day long!

Say there are 5 people from HR there... and you work in a company which has 10 HR staff... if I were a betting man, I'd put money on at least one of them knowing you...But let's be honest about it. The Careers Fair is THE number 1 recruitment event for consultants in the UK. All the top dogs are there and it's an excellent opportunity to network with both peers and potential future employers. If someone from your firm does recognise you, so what? You're hardly going to get a call at 3am the following day telling you you're fired!

Simon - last year there were tons of consultants currently employed by the exhibiting firms who chose to attend as candidates, so don't think this is really as much of an issue as you might imagine. The fair is also heaving with people, so the chances of you bumping into someone who's manning your employer's stand are really pretty slim...Hope to see you on FridayTony RestellTop-Consultant.com

Why not take matters into your own hands?! No more cowering about whether they might see you! Go to the fair and make damn sure your employer does see you are there - in fact go directly to their stand and say hi to anyone you know.It shouldn't be hard to say with a straight face that you're just checking out whether they are still the best place for you to be progressing your career. Don't be obnoxious about it or even remotely threatening. The firm being aware you've looked at your options could pay great dividends come next bonus / pay round time! H

The risk of being embarassed at these things is too great.Why not just go through Michael Page, or some such, and save yourself an afternoon of trying to avoid uncomfortable conversations with your colleagues?

Tim - the insights you will get from talking to actual practising consultants at Accenture, followed by Deloitte, followed by BT, followed by IBM... these cannot be gained by talking to anyone else. If you were to pick my brains you wouldn't get all the same insights; and if you were to pick the brains of a good recruitment consultant you wouldn't get all the same insights either. Plus many of the firms have Practice Heads and Directors either on their stands or giving presentations - that's a fantastic opportunity to find out where the firm is really heading and what the top brass are really like. So I guess I'm saying don't talk yourself out of going because you think the same interactions and opportunities can be grasped through other channels. That's simply not true - otherwise the event wouldn't be commercially viable!Tony RestellTop-Consultant.com

Tony's right, I can't quite put my finger on it but there's something you can tell about each of the companies just by talking to their staff in person that simply can't be gotten by looking through their website or job ads.Tony - Thank you for organising such a great event last year by the way.

Dunc - thanks for the endorsement of the fair and glad you enjoyed the event last year. For us it's a pleasure organising it - so much of our year is spent interacting with readers electronically that it is great to have thousands all there in person on that one day. You get to see that we really exist and we get to mingle with a cross section of our readers; for us it's fascinating!!Tony RestellTop-Consultant.com

I think all these very valid points are outweighed by the risk of trying to explain your presence at the fair to colleagues who are either on your company's stand, or are there looking for a job themselves !!!