01.26.10
Getting Noticed at Career Faires
Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your career search. Career Faires are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Bay Area Career Faire in January, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 career fairs scheduled for this year across the States.
How do you rise above the crowd at a Career Faire? The rivalry can be sizeable, but you can help yourself jump out from the herd with early planning. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward 6-step process to get ready. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the companies that are going and pick your targets. Use the internet to check out the organizations that are there before you go. Go to their sites and see if they have their openings posted. Pick a moderate number to go after, and get ready to spend an hour or more researching each one. It’s hard to do more than eight in a day, and four to six is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring company, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and exectuve 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 prerequisites of the job. Make the language match. If the hiring company calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring organization.
Third, create a ‘brief sales pitch’ for each potential organization/job combination. Write down a ninety second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud showing why you are a special prospect for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet people at the job stall.
Fourth, modify your resume for each job type. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position 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 prerequisites. Especially at a Career Fair, 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 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, rehearse your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each opportunity - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a clearly marked folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
