Competing Successfully at Career Faires
Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your job hunting. Career Faires 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 Faire in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 job fairs scheduled for 2010 across the United States.
How do you get to the real interviews at a Career Faire? The rivalry can be noteworthy, but you can help yourself leap out from the bunch with early preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a simplified 6-step process to get ready. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the organizations that are going and pick your targets. Use the web to research the companies that are there beforehand. Go to their internet sites and see if they have their openings posted. Pick a sane number to target, and get ready to spend an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 8 in a day, and three or four is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring company, you want to know: key product lines, recent news, and executive names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You will end up with 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 achievements and skills to the requirements of the job. Make the nomenclature match. If the hiring organization calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring company.
Third, create a ‘short sales pitch’ for each likely organization/job combination. Write down a 90 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud showing why you are a good candidate for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job stall.
Fourth, modify your resume for each position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re going after. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the achievements and skills that most clearly match the job description. Especially at a Job Fair, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be simple to see that you’re a fit based on your resume.
Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress nicely and be fittingly 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 understandably labeled folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!