Standing out at Career Fairs
Standing out at a Job Fair can make a difference in your career search. Career Fairs are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Silicon Valley Job Fair in January, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 job faires scheduled for this year across the United States.
How do you compete at a Job Faire? The contention can be significant, but you can help yourself leap out from the bunch with early planning. At AA-Careers, we have a simple 6-step process to prepare. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the companies that are going and pick your targets. Use the World Wide Web to check out the companies that are there beforehand. Go to their sites and see if they have their openings posted. Pick a sound number to go after, and get ready to spend up to an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than seven in a day, and 3-5 is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring organization, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and contacts you know. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You’ll end up with a page or two of research for each company/job.
Second, if there are job postings on the web, read them to see what the company is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the prerequisites of the job. Make the terminology match. If the hiring company calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The achievements should be written in the style of the hiring organization.
Third, create a ‘brief sales pitch’ for each potential organization/position combination. Write down a 60 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud showing why you are a great candidate for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the team from the company at the job stall.
Fourth, modify your resume for each position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position you’re targeting. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the accomplishments and skills that most clearly match the job prerequisites. Especially at a Job Faire, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be obvious to see that you’re a match based on your resume.
Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be well groomed. Don’t over do-it (this isn’t a date!) and don’t underdress (no jeans or t-shirts, no matter how much you paid for them). Avoid strong cologne or perfume.
Finally, practice your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each position - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a distinctly tagged folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
